The New Yesterday
by XFeelXTheXLoveX
Summary: "You know that thing that people always say about band members? One ends up being a drug addict. the other ends up having a mental breakdown and cracking up because of the fame, the other one comes out gay and the last one turns out fine or they end up dead. Yeah. I was the band member who had the break down."
1. Ross Lynch

**I know you are all probably thinking "why are you posting another story when you're stressing over your other three?" yeah... well... like i said in one of my other stories when I first started writing it... Be glad I'm posting new stories because once I get down to one story left over, the chances are I may never post again because I'm losing my inspiration that much. **

**But this story wouldn't leave me alone. It's been bugging me for a while now. It's not exactly an exciting story, but I think it's good. I hope you guys like it. I'm quite excited for it.**

**Yes, this is another R5/The Vamps/5SOS story (even though I only have like one out). But that's because I didn't want to use ALL of R5 members for this story because it would seem way too cliché too. You'll see what I mean when you read it! :)**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

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**Title: **The New Yesterday

**Summery: **AU. "You know that thing that people always say about band members? One ends up being a drug addict. the other ends up having a mental breakdown and cracking up because of the fame, the other one comes out gay and the last one turns out fine or they end up dead. Yeah. I was the band member who had the break down."

**Rated: **T

**Genre: **Drama, Humour, Friendship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort.

**Starring: **Ross Lynch, Bradley Simpson, Rydel Lynch, Rocky Lynch, Ashton Irwin, Ellington Ratliff, Laura Marano, Riker Lynch, Ryland Lynch, Luke Hemmings and more.

**Couples: **N/A.

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter** **1**  
_Ross Lynch_

You know that thing that people always say about band members?

One ends up being a drug addict and an alocholic in the end, the other ends up having a mental breakdown and cracking up because of the fame, the other one comes out gay and the last one either turns out fine or they end up dead.

It's kind of a scary thing to say about a band, especially when you're in a world famous band yourself with your three best friends that everybody loves and looks up to no matter what. I joined that band when I was 17, in High School, and my age is 21 now so as band we kept on going strong. Normally bands don't last that long together, but in total honesty I don't think we were actually a normal band.

See the majority of us that were in the band started off as basically nobody's, as every famous person does or claims to have. We weren't really popylar or unpopular, we were just kind of in the middle. People either knew who we were or they didn't know who we were. If they didn't know who we were, they still knew who we were because we'd pass them every day on the hallway or just be there.

Our High School experience was okay I suppose, but it could have been better. Although, I think everyone's High School experience could have been better. Haha.

For everyone in the band we all had a different life of how we were treated at home and just in gerneral. For me, I'd say I was treated okay.

For eleven years of my life I lived in Colorado, where I am originally from, before my parents decided they wanted a change in their life and dragged me, my older brother Riker and my little brother Ryland out to California in Los Angeles. Great change, I have to admit. At first it was a little hard making friends but I made some pretty good ones. Also known as Laura Marano and Ellington Lee Ratliff. Two of the greatest people you will ever meet. Though, Ellington kind of has his on and off days. One day he can be the greatest person you've met, or he can be the worlds most sassiest and sarcastic person you've ever met. He was very tough on people as well when they were trying to achieve things, like me for instance, but I think that was just his way of making people go for what they wanted more in the world.

It worked a lot surprisingly.

Laura, she's a sweet, kind and caring person. One of those people who you would find volunteering at an animal shelter on a week-end or an old people's home. She was never tough on me like Ellington was.

They were my best friends from the age of 11 when I moved to LA.

But then the fame and fortune got in the way of that friendship and it almost destroyed everything with us. I'm still amazed at how I managed to save it.

I never started talking to my bandmates Brad, Ashton and Rocky as much as I did when I was 17. I knew who they were, I only spoke to them a little. I don't even think I spoke to Ashton at all. The only reason I talked to Brad was because we didn't really get on, mainly due to the fact I had a habbit of accidentally irritating him and he was so easy to irritate. But that was only because of how his life was. And when I found out about it, I'm not gonna lie I was pretty shocked and felt sorry for him. But i'll leave that for him to explain as i've forgotten most of it.

But if it wasn't for one very specific person, that band would never have been and I would have never have started talking to those three.

Ashton and Rocky were in the grade above us but they still took music, but they only took it because there wasn't any other subject they liked. Basically they thought in music you'd be able to mess around all lesson and listen to music. Oh no, it was far more than that. I took music because I actually liked it and Brad took music because he was too late on picking what subjects he wanted to do that music was the only one left. He didn't like music at all. In fact he hated it with a passion. That also has something else to do with his life. Honestly, I think Brad was the one who went through the most bullshit in the band in the end.

We all had the same music teacher, but that music teacher quit and moved somewhere else because he had better things to be doing with his life apparently. Not that we were complaining because we hated him anyway, he made music really boring. So that meant getting a new teacher. Our new teacher was young. Very young. She was amazing, she really clicked with the students really well and had a way of teaching everyone. She was 22, almost 23, so she had to suffer with some comments of how young she was from students. But they didn't care. She was better than the old teacher.

And that teacher was Miss Rydel Harding.

She preferred for us to call her Rydel – but when other teachers werea around we had to call her Miss Harding.

She was the main reason our band came together. But that's a long story that I don't really have time for right now.

Our band was one of the best bands out there, and i'm not just saying that because I'm in the band but it genuinely was. Everybody loved us. We could have been the next One Direction but lets face it nobody was going to get anywhere near as famous as them no matter how hard they tried. Though we were practically at that level of fame, selling out arenas in minutes, getting mobbed, chased by fans etc.

I had the freaking time of my life in that band. And I wouldn't change a single thing about it.

Well... there is one thing I would change about it.

You remember what I said at the beginning, right?

About how in each band one member ends up being a drug addict and alocholic, one ends up having a breakdown, the other one ends up coming out gay and the other either ends up being completely fine and staying sane or ends up dead? Right?

Yeah.

I was the band member who had the break down.

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**Yeah, sorry it was short. It's just the next few chapters are gonna be introducing Ross, Brad, Ashton and Rocky (y). I think it would be better doing that other wise this story might end up being shorter than it needs to be... Brilliant.**

**Please review!**


	2. Bradley Simpson

**Don't worry, I have got updates half-ish done for Somebody To You & The Last Judgement. They're just stressing me out because I'm not at were i want to be -_- but I am getting there. Don't worry!.**

**Glad you all like the story so far! :) Hope you enjoy this chapter too!**

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**R5AusllyFan:** I'll update The Last Judgement when I can okay? It does take time to write these things, especially when you don't have motivation to do it.

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island & Capitol Records.**

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**Chapter 2  
**_Bradley Simpson_**  
**

Hi, my names Bradley Will Simpson. Everyone calls me Brad for short rather than Bradley, I prefer it that way if I'm honest.

I'm in a worldwide famous band and I sing and play bass, along with my three best friends Rocky, Ashton and Ross who also sing and play different instruments. And joining that band with those three was probably the _**worst**_ and best decision I have ever made in my life. Of course my life didn't really last that long, given I'm 21 and I joined the band when I was 17 and still in High School – so that goes to say how long we were a band for.

Keyword = _**were**_.

As I said before, in that band I was one of the lead singers and I played the bass. The only reason I played the bass was because I had no clue how to play guitar before the band even started and Ross and Rocky were already playing it or had an idea how to play it. Ross had to teach me how to play, it took a while but I cracked it. But in the end I got put with the bass – not that I don't mind. Ross is also a lead singer and plays the rhythm guitar, Rocky sings also and plays lead guitar and Ashton plays drums and also sings a little.

I don't know why I explained like it's happening in the present when it isn't, any more. It's all in the past now. But I won't give anything away just yet. Not that I was going to anyway.

Though I speak like I was the only one in the band who didn't know how to play the instrument they played, Ashton didn't know how to play the drums. But he gave it one go and it clicked with him straight away. The guitar/bass didn't click with me straight away, probably due to the fact at the time I hated music with a passion due to reasons and I was being stubborn, not letting it click with me like Ashton did.

But we're not talking about Ashton now, we're talking about me.

He said trying not to sound self-centred and vain.

But yeah.

What's there to know about me? Not much really.

As the others probably said, we had an okay High School experience. We weren't popular or unpopular, so we were kind of stuck in the middle of that.

My life experience?

Not the best.

Ashton, Rocky and Ross had by far a better experience than mine.

My Dad's in jail. Why? Because he's an ass hole. He use to hit me when I was a little kid up until I was about five or six, and he use to do the same to my Mom as well as 'other things'. Basically he was abusive towards us both but he got caught and got sent to jail for it as well as doing drugs and being an alocholic. Mainly the drugs thing.

Then when I was about seven my Mom got re-married to another guy, still is married to him, much better than my douche of a Dad. They ended up having two babies together so that landed me a baby sister, Natalie, and a baby brother, Aaron. But... I don't like to talk about Aaron. Let's just say he's in a better place.

And he went to that 'better place' when I was about to turn 18.

But back to my Dad...

When he was about 20, he was in a band. A good band too. It was a popular band, but nowhere as near as popular as mine, Ross, Ashton and Rocky's were. Yes, they were selling out shows here, there and everywhere and they were amazing. They continued going and going and going til my Dad was turning 30, and then that's when the band started falling apart...

the fame they were getting was too much for almost all of them to handle, especially my Dad. One of his bandmates had people to keep him grounded from doing anything stupid to deal with the pressure, another band member killed himself and my Dad... he turned to drugs for the answer and didn't stop. I don't know what happened to the other two members. I think they turned out okay. Not sure. But my Dad, he took drugs and drank alochol up until the point where he nearly died – but he didn't. And you would have thought that would have stopped him from doing drugs and drinking, but it didn't. Oh no. everyone tried everything they could to stop him but he had none of it.

As you would have guessed, my Dad would be the reason why I used to hate music with a passion. Why? Because I was afraid if I liked anything to do with music I would become like him. Basically I was scared of the 'Father-like-son' saying coming true.

Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be today if I hadn't have waited so long in picking my subjects at school. I know for a fact I wouldn't be in music. I wouldn't have started talking to Ashton and Rocky and I most definitely wouldn't have became friends with Ross. I didn't hate Ross, it was just... if he was on fire, and I had a bucket of water... I'd use to the bucket of water to wash my car.

He would always irritate me whenever he got the chance too because he knew he irritated me, but now that I think about it he wasn't irritating at all he was just the exact opposite of me. The me I didn't want to be, you could say. But he grew on me, obviously, and we became good friends after that.

I did have other friends besides from them of course, and that was Connor, Tristan and James. After the band took off, I slowly drifted from them to the point where they didn't want to know who I was anymore. That was horrible. A very horrible feeling. That added onto who I ended up being out of the band. The other things that added onto it was the fact that the fame really was pressurising because you had to make sure you didn't slip up or get caught doing anything bad, and you had to worry about papparazzi and others making stuff up about you. Oh yeah, then there was having to make sure you were a good romodel to kids and teenagers.

Probably 75% of why Ross had his breakdown. That was a scary thing and worrying thing that happened and was witnessed. Also added to my pressure as well because he was my best friend and I wanted him to be okay and to get better to the point I didn't know what to do anymore.

But other things happened to Ashton and Rocky before Ross had his little situation because after Ross had his situation, it was my turn to go downhill.

It was like the four of us were on some rota to go downhill.

First it was Ashton – jesus christ, that was a freaking nightmare to get through.

Then it was Ross – even bigger of a nightmare.

Lastly, me.

Rocky never got anything from anyone, he had no breakdown, no problems. The paparazzi tried to give him a problem by making up stuff, but it never worked. Rocky being Rocky took it like a man and threw it back in their face and made a joke out it and by then they gave up.

If anything, Rocky is the only member of the band that actually stayed sane and turned out okay.

It was what my Mom and step-Dad told me before the band took off:

Every band has its breakdown and has to come to an end at some point.

Boy they were right.

I also remember getting told by Rydel, our music teacher, that in every band there is the one that has a breakdown, a drug addict/alcoholic, someone comes out gay and the other turns out fine or dead by the time the band comes to an end. She also told us not to let that happen to us, and we promised her we wouldn't even though we knew it was a joke.

Boy we let her down badly.

As for who I turned out to be out of the four...

I'm just going to say one thing.

Like Father like son.

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**I know this chapter might sound a little familiar to Ross's one, but i needed to give you near enough the same information from Ross's chapter in this one. If that made any sense?**

**I don't know who's chapter you want next, Rocky or Ashton's. So, ima let you decide on that one :)**

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	3. Ashton Irwin

**YAY. Another update from this story! It's kinda short bc I put most of the info in Ross & Brad's chapter so don't be surprised if I don't do Rocky's chapter.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island & Capitol Records.**

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**Chapter 3  
**_Ashton Irwin_**  
**

Hey! I'm Ashton. A drummer/backing vocalist for a band I used to be in.

That band... was something. Everyone had their own little characters or roles to play in that band. I was known as the funny, chirpy guy in the band (which changed later on because of reasons), Rocky was known as the sarcastic, funny one, and Ross and Brad were pretty much known as the same thing. The good looking ones.

But to be honest, we were all good looking and still are.

And I'm not just saying that Rocky, Ross and Brad are good looking because I'm—never mind.

In High School I didn't really hang around with anybody but my friends Michael, Luke and Calum. I'd known them for pretty much all my life and they were in all my classes up until we had to choose what lessons we wanted to do and neither of them picked music which left me on my own, which is where I met Rocky. I thought Rocky was pretty cool so I stuck with him throughout all the music lessons and rarely anybody else. Not that we got anything done, really. We almost gave our old music teacher a break down. Not Rydel, the other one we had. He was an arse hole. Rydel? She was cool as hell. As soon as she walked through that classroom door I knew she was. I'm not just saying that because I thought she was hot.

Alright, I am.

But after about half a year of my constant comments about her being hot and my not so subtle flirting towards her that she thought was hilarious, that soon changed. A hell of a lot.

"_Hey, Ash," Rydel smiled, walking by myself and Luke in the hallway, as we were stood by my locker "having fun there?" she asked with a smirk, turning round and walking away with the grin on her face._

_Luke furrowed his brow "What was that about?" he asked._

_I shrugged, watching as she walked off "I have no idea."_

Yup.

As far as family goes, I have a Mom (no Dad, he left a long time ago) and two siblings. Harry and Lauren. Harry's the youngest. I'm the oldest out of them both, obviously. I'd say we were a pretty happy family and got along well. We didn't exactly have any major problems. I admit the band might have got in the way of that some times. And _**other**_ things that had to do with my personal life that they never knew about up until they had to know before everyone else found out.

I'd seen Ross and Brad around school, but I had never spoken to them ever. Then the day came where mine and Rocky's music teacher never showed up to lesson one day so that meant our class had to merge with Ross and Brad's class for the two hours we had the lesson – which was also Rydel's first day of teaching. She didn't have anything planned because she wasn't told she would have to have two classes, so she told us to get into groups no more than five and have a song or composition to present by the end of the lesson. Everyone got into groups but me, Rocky, Ross and Brad because we all didn't know anybody.

And well, you can see what happened.

But it's not as simple as it sounds, the band didn't suddenly start right there. Oh no, we had to got through other bullshit to actually agree to be in a band together. AKA convince Brad. But that's a whole different story.

The band was definitely a big part of my life and honestly, I wouldn't change anything about it. Yes, I would change Ross's breakdown and Brad's drug addiction but anything else – no. Everything was fine until them two things happened.

Actually, I tell a lie. I kinda started off the band falling apart. But hey! It wasn't my fault, these things happen to people and I wouldn't have been able to get through it if it wasn't for Ross, Rocky, Brad, and... Luke. I'd have said Michael and Calum too, but they gave up on me because of me being in the band and supposedly forgetting about their existance.

Heck, I think everyone basically gave up on us.

Luke was the only friend, well - "friend", that stuck by my side through the band and still does to this day. Mainly because he chose to stay, I think the only reason Michael and Calum left was because I don't think they were going to be able to bare the fame coming from me shining onto me like it did with Luke. Though, Luke was just known as "Ashton's friend" and that's what Calum and Michael would have been known as. Of course, what Luke was known for changed... a lot. Drastically.

And that was when the band started to go downhill a little.

I don't see why it went down so much. We had a lot of fans and they adored us so much and we loved them back a whole lot. The attention we got from them was amazing and they were the reason we stayed on top. Especially the attention from the girls. Jesus Christ the attention from the girls was unbelievable. It was amazing and I loved it, along with the others.

But, me loving attention from the girls... never really lasted that long. For a while I had to pretend I did. For reasons.

I still blame myself for the band breaking up because I feel I started it but the guys told me over and over again not to blame myself as we all had a part to play in it. But no matter how much they told me not to blame myself for it, I still do.

But you know, when a band member in a band full of boys comes out gay... it kinda puts a dip in their career.

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**Like I said at the beginning, don't be surprised if I don't do Rocky's chapter because his is basically the same as Ashton's expect with Maia plus others & bc he's obviously the one who stays sane out of them all. So.. yeah.**

**Thanks for reading!**

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	4. Aaron & Luke

**I made a mistake in Brad's chapter. I realised I've added Connor as his friend when he shouldn't be. So, Connor is NOT apart of Brad's life in this story, I think I got a little bit too carried away haha.**

**Also, I've decided to skip Rocky's chapter cause I feel everything about his life has been pretty much explained throughout Ross, Brad & Ashton's chapters if you go back and read. (y). Brilliant. If you feel it hasn't, then that's obviously going to be a surprise for you throughout the story & something to look forward to reading about yay.**

**Anyway, I'll shut up now :)**

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**Balloon: **No, really, who the hell are you bc you make me smile so hard with your reviews you're so sweet omfg. Literally. Are you from Twitter? Cause if so I need to know like right now. Jesus christ. You are too kind and way too sweet omg.

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter 4  
**_Aaron & Luke_

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"Brad! Get up or you're going to be late!"

Brad groaned, hearing his Mom's voice calling him from downstairs. If it wasn't for the fact someone had rudely opened up his bedroom door during the night or this morning, he wouldn't have heard her and he wouldn't have to be laying in bed awake, trying to get back to sleep, with her annoying voice ringing through his head trying to get him to wake up.

God knows where his step-dad was, he was probably in bed still or getting Natalie or Aaron ready to go to school as well.

He wishes he was still a little kid on mornings like these, because back then you didn't care if you were up early all you wanted to do was be up and go out, go to school and see your friends. Brad on the other hand... he doesn't really want to see his friends. Don't get him wrong he loves James and Tristan to pieces, but sometimes they can get on his nerves and be boring some times. Brad doesn't say anything though. He just sticks with them.

Maybe that's why he's never had any other friends than them two. Because he's so used to them. Sometimes he wishes he had a better friendship with them or with somebody else as they're not in all of his lessons, so that means he has to be on his own or talk to somebody else. Mainly be on his own. He preffered being alone. Nobody could bother him.

You could say he shut himself out from the world as he never went out with his friends anymore or did anything social. He'd stay in doors in his room, when not at school, on his laptop or on his xbox. It was very rare he went out now. James and Tristan would come round sometimes to keep him company or attempt to get him out. It never worked. Even when he did go out, he stayed out for about an hour, two at the latest, before coming home.

His parents always worked late too, so it didn't help that he had to stay home anyway and look after Aaron and Natalie till they got home. Not that they needed looking after. Natalie always went out to play on the street with her friends, being nine that's all nine year olds seem to do, and Aaron... he's in or he's out. Though, he's six so there's only a limited amount of things six year olds can do. Aka play with their toys and have to have their brother sit out on the porch and watch them if they play outside with a friend who has another family member watching them from their porch.

Lately Aaron hadn't been going out very much, he'd stay in and play with his toys or sit with Brad or fall asleep on Brad or end up falling asleep with Brad. It was like the older Aaron got the more attached her got to Brad.

"BRAD!"

"I'M COMING!" Brad shouted in annoyance of his mothers voice. "Jesus Christ, take a fucking chill pill not everyone's a morning person." he mumbled into his pillow, letting out a sigh shortly after.

A couple more seconds passed of Brad laying in his bed, making no movement what so ever, until he felt movement on his bed. Either meaning that it was his Mom about to slap him awake or Jess, his dog, coming to give him a wake up call. "Mom, I'm getting up," he mumbled "Jess, if it's you... fuck off."

"Mommy told me to come wake you."

Brad turned around where he saw Aaron sat on his bed dressed and ready to go to school himself, with his legs crossed, looking at Brad slightly upset, judging by the puppy dog eyes and the lip that was slightly pouted. "What's wrong, buddy?" Brad asked, sitting up in his bed.

"I don't wanna go to school."

Brad laughed softly "I don't wanna go either," he said, ruffling Aaron's dark blonde hair "but we gotta. It's law. If we don't, Mom will get into trouble. So, I suggest you go downstairs so Mom has two children, because at this rate if I don't get down there she's going to kill me and you'll be speaking at my funeral." he said, making Aaron laugh a little. He shoved him gently to get off the bed "Go on, go."

Aaron slowly climbed off the bed and left Brad's room. Brad sighed and threw the covers off him, getting ready to go in the shower and get dressed for another day of torture at school.

"LUKE, I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!"

And there they were. At it again.

Ashton, Luke, Michael and Calum were all sat outside school as everyone was coming in, playing with the football, and Luke kicked the ball where it ended up smacking Ashton in the side of the face. Currently Ashton is chasing Luke around the small bit of grass, trying to catch him and hit him for it whilst Michael and Calum stood there and watched. Calum shook his head, having his arms folded "They are unbelievable."

Michael shrugged "Give them like five minutes. Or wait till Molly comes." he said, wiggling his eyebrows and making Calum sigh heavily.

Molly is Ashton's girlfriend. Also known as the girl that Michael, Calum and Luke can't stand. They've never had the heart to tell Ashton his girlfriends a bitch that they don't like. Of course, everyone but Michael because he doesn't care about what people think of him when it comes to the people he doesn't like. You could tell by the way Calum and Luke acted around Molly they didn't like her, especially Calum – Luke had gotten good at acting like he liked her. To be honest, they only put up with her for Ashton because they could tell he really liked her. It would be a shame if Ashton knew because then he would feel awkward and have to break up with her.

You know the saying.

Bro's before hoes.

But Ashton is the type of person who wouldn't know what to do. Unless he went to Michael for advice then Michael would be Michael, be insensitive and tell him straight. _Break up with the stupid hoe._

Michael Clifford everyone.

"AHH!" Luke shouted, as he was tackled to the floor by Ashton.

Ashton held him in a tight head lock, as they began rolling around on the grass together beginning to have a small play fight whilst Michael and Calum watched on. "How many times do you wanna hit me with the god damn ball?!"

"As many times as I can!" Luke said, beginning to choke a little by how tight Ashton had him in the headlock. He knew it was supposed to be a joke but Ashton is a strong guy and sometimes he doesn't know his own strength that he could actually kill someone by accident.

And right now it looked like he was about to kill Luke. "Ashton, you're choking me!" Luke said, thrashing his arms around – being obvious he was struggling for breath.

"GET A ROOM!" Calum shouted from where he stood, picking up his bag from the floor.

Ashton released Luke, but still laid on the floor with him "You two get a room." Ashton called over to Calum and Michael.

"Are you two going at it again?" A familiar female voice asked jokingly from behind.

Ashton and Luke turned their heads and looked up where they saw Molly stood there with her hands on her hips and looking down at them both. Luke turned away and rolled his eyes. Unfortunately the eye wasn't very subtle because Ashton caught it out of the corner of his eye. He decided to ignore it and pulled himself up to his knees and opening his arms to give his girlfriend a hug "Hey, babe." he said, giving her a hug.

"Hey Ashy." Molly said – which Luke also mimed mockingly, still sat on the floor, at the same time because it was what she said every time she met up with Ash. Calum and Michael laughed when they saw Luke mock her.

Luke sat on the floor, not moving and looking less than impressed whilst Ashton was practically stood behind Luke, almost sat on his head, talking to Molly. That was the irritating part about right now. He kept on looking over to Michael and Calum for help but neither of them would offer it, they were just stood there laughing. "Ash." Luke kept saying over and over again, but he was taking no notice.

"Ash..."

Ashton nodded at Molly "Yeah, I'll meet you somewhere at-"

"Ashton." Luke said, starting to get really frustrated.

"Yeah, that's fine." She said smiling.

"ASHONT!" Luke shouted.

"WHAT?!" Ashton asked, turning round. But when he turned around he didn't realise how close he was stood to Luke because he ended up going over on him and landing flat on his back on the grass in front of Luke. Along with kicking Luke straight in the face as he did fall over him. "Oh shit!" Ashton said, looking at Luke from where he laid and seeing him holding his lip "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Ashton asked, getting on his hands and knees as he was doing his best not to laugh.

Luke glared at Ashton and began moving his jaw "Ow, no you fucking ass, that hurt!"

Ashton gestured to his own lip "Your er... your lip..."

"What about it?"

"It's bleeding. I think your lip ring didn't help being there when I kicked you."

"No, you being practically sat on my head didn't fucking help! Then you wouldn't have kicked me in the face you fucking prick," Luke snapped, standing up and holding his lip where it was bleeding "I'm going to get this sorted."

Ashton got up from the floor "I'll come with you."

Luke shook his head "No, you can stay here with _Molly_. I'll go on my own." he gave Ashton a small glare before walking off towards the school doors.

"Sheesh, someone's on their period." Ashton mumbled, walking back closer to Molly.

Molly let out a small laugh "Well, I better get going. I'll see you later." she gave him a quick kiss on the lips and also made her way to the door.

Ashton turned round back to where Calum and Michael were and walked over to them where Michael shook his head at Ashton like he was an idiot. In fact, he is an idiot there's no 'was' about it. "What?" Ashton asked.

Michael continued shaking his head "Never mind." he said, sighing and beginning to walk away himself "never mind." he sighed.

Ashton turned to Calum "What's up with him?" Ashton asked.

Calum shrugged "Beats me. But I'm going inside. What about you?" Calum asked.

Ashton shook his head, where his eyes caught the attention of someone else sat on the grass a small while away "Na, I'd like to stay out of that building for as long as possible," he said, patting him on the shoulder "I'll see you later though. Maybe Luke will be in a better mood."

Ashton sighed and watched as Calum ran to catch up with Michael, and turned his attention back to the person sat on the grass. He walked towards them and threw his bag down next to them, sitting down next to him "Never do what I just did." Ashton said.

The boy looked up at Ashton from writing on a piece of paper "And that is?" he asked.

"Piss off your best friend," he said, looking at him "I'm telling ya, it's not good Rocky. He's gonna be in a pissy mood with me _all_ day now."

Rocky laughed "Well, you did kick him in the face."

Ashton shrugged. He took a glance at what Rocky was writing down on the piece of paper he had in his hands "What ya got there?" He asked. As Ashton asked that question a blonde girl, about 22, got out from her car and started getting some stuff out the car that the two boys didn't notice – she noticed them, but didn't pay that much attention to them. Once she had everything out her car she started making her way towards the doors.

"Homework."

Ashton gasped "Homework?" he asked, shocked "Rocky Jenkinson. Since when did you do homework?"

"It's for music."

The blonde girl stopped behind Ashton and Rocky a short distance away, looking at them both as they started talking about music. Not for the fact she is obviously into music herself, but for the fact... well... she didn't know really. But she was intrigued by it.

"Especially for music!" Ashton asked even more shocked. Ashton and Rocky absolutely hated their music teacher and the class. To be honest they don't even know why they took it. They only took it because they thought it was going to be easy, but it turns out it's more than just listening to music it is a lot harder. But Rocky's quite good at it. You know, when he tries and that's not very often.

"Because Mr Fuckerfield's a bitch and said if I don't do it, I'll get a detention and whatever else he can throw at me," Rocky said, sounding frustrated by mentioning Mr Copperfield. He is an absolute ass. There's donkeys, who are ass's, and then there is just him. "He said to me I don't need to write a full song, but start one off, seen as though everyone else has. You weren't here the day he gave it out, you're very lucky."

Ashton laughed "Oh, dude. Didn't you hear? There's no point in doing your homework."

"Hear what?" Rocky asked.

"Mr Copperfield quit. We're getting a new music teacher," Ashton said. Rocky look at Ashton with complete disbelief and frustration at the fact it was the first time he had ever done homework for that teacher and now, he didn't even have to do it. Ashton burst out laughing "OH, dude. You should really stick to not doing homework."

Rocky sighed in frustration, grabbing the piece of paper and scrumpling it up into a ball "I HATE MY LIFE!" He shouted, throwing the piece of paper that landed a short distance away from him "the one time I do homework for a subject I hate – something happens where I don't have to do it!"

Ashton patted Rocky's back "There, there," he said "like I said before, just stick to doing what you do best in music. Nothing – like me."

Rocky nodded as the bell sounded from inside, and began to get up with Ashton "I think I will. Not like I'm going to do anything with it anyway," he shrugged his bag onto his shoulder "we better go in," he said, seeing Maia out the corner of his eye "anyway, I'll see you this afternoon when we have music." he patted Ashton on the back and turned to go run to Maia but ended up crashing into someone. "Oh shit, sorry Ross! I didn't see you." He said, making Ashton smirk.

Ross nodded at him "It's fine," he said, rubbing his shoulder where he knocked into "why would you see me?"

"Sorry, again. Bye now," he said, "hey Maia!" He called, running up to her.

Ross sighed and continued on walking towards the school building, followed by Ashton who followed behind.

As for the blonde girl, as soon as Ashton and Rocky were almost in the building she walked over to the patch of grass where Rocky had threw the piece of paper with his music homework on. The one where this Mr Copperfield gave him to write half a song. She picked it up and unscrumpled it, reading over it. She looked back over to the door where Ashton, Rocky and the other boy – was it Ross? - were now inside the building.

She smiled and shoved the piece of paper into her back pocket.

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**I guess that was an insight on Brad & Ashton's daily life really with a hint of Rocky's and a dash of Ross's with the end. I decided to just kick the story right off instead of dragging it out like I have done with Somebody To You & The Last Judgement (y)**

**Not sure how long this story is going to be. **

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	5. Rydel

**YAY! Finally an update woo! Yeah, I'm gonna try and update ALL my stories today... so... yeah.**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island and Capitol records!**

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**Chapter 5  
**_Rydel_**  
**

"OW!" Ross cried out as he felt someone hit him round the head.

And by someone. He meant Ellington.

Ellington laughed, sitting next to Ross with Laura down at the lunch table. It was his way of greeting Ross every time he met up with him, only if he wasn't looking and had his back to him. Like now. It's lunch time and therefore Ross is sat down with his back to him. Perfect opportunity. "So, what are you moping about today?" Ellington asked, taking a fry from his plate and eating it.

"Nothing."

"Oh, c'mon. You're always moping about something," Ellington said, feeling disappointed. Every day he met up with Ross they would always have something to rant about and let off their chests. It was the only the both of them stayed sane without having some sort of nervous breakdown. "Where have you been this morning anyway?" Ellington asked, as this was the first time he had seen him all day. Normally he see's him well before lunch.

Ross looked down awkwardly, like he was trying to get away with something "In lessons."

Laura scoffed "Bullshit. You weren't in English. You've been skipping again," she said, making him shrug. She rolled her eyes "c'mon Ross. You're never going to amount to anything if you keep skipping lessons."

Now it was Ross's turn to scoff "That's easy to say coming from an A star student. Isn't it?" he asked, making it sound harsh.

Laura shrugged "I'm only saying it because I care."

"Yeah, well could you care a little less?" Ross asked, making a small gap between his finger and thumb. "You sound like my Mom. And... I don't need you sounding like my Mom. School is a place to get away from people who annoy you at home."

"Actually-" Ellington went to say but was cut off.

"Shut the fuck up," Ross said, turning to him "I don't need your sass and sarcasm today."

Ellington looked away from Ross, looking taken back "Someone pissed the bed this morning." Ellington mumbled, causing him to get slapped by Ross. "Don't slap me!" Ellington said, slapping him back. Where eventually it turned into a slap war between them both, Laura sighed, rolling her eyes as she got her drink out of her bag.

"I'm just saying," Tristan said as he, James and Brad were walking through the lunch hall to find a table "you really need to come out more. You miss a lot. We have a really good time."

Brad shrugged "Yeah, I know. But... Aaron and Natalie. I don't think you'd both appreciate me bringing a six and nine year old along, would you?" He asked, making James and Tristan agree with him a little bit. "Besides. The times going to come when they can go out and disappear till the late night and then I'll be able to come out with you guys."

James laughed "Yeah... in like 10 or 5 years when we're adults or in college when we can't enjoy ourselves anymore?" he asked, he shook his head – making Brad feel bad. James did understand the situation Brad was in with his Mom and step-Dad being at work late at night so therefore he was left responsible to make sure they were fed and looked after before they came home because they got home very late at night. Which meant Brad never gets to do anything at all really. He doesn't even ghave a Grandma or Granddad or Uncle or Aunt that are free to help.

"I wish I could come out, but it's never gonna happen right now."

"Yeah you need a miracle." Tristan said as they were beginning to walk past Ross, Ellington and Laura's table. "What have you both got this afternoon?" he asked.

"Music."

"Art, with you." James answered to Tristan.

"Guys," Laura said, putting her drink down "will you stop slapping each other?" she asked. She shook her head and put the drink back to her lips.

Ross turned around quickly to avoid a slap that was coming to his face but ended up smacking Laura's arm with the drink in that flew out of her hand and ended up all over Brad as he, Tristan and James walked by. Laura gasped "Oh my god! You're a fucking idiot! Brad, I am so sorry!"

Ross covered his mouth as he saw the drink go over him, and he couldn't help but let out a giggle – Ellington didn't know how to feel because by the look on Brad's face he looked less than amused and like he was about to pounce on Ross at any moment. Not that it was a surprise, he always looked like he wanted to kill him. Laura hit Ross "Say sorry!" she said.

Ross nodded, looking at Brad with a big grin across his face "I'm sorry." He said, trying not to laugh. It didn't last very long as he ended up bursting out laughing.

"What's going on?" A female voice asked.

Ross, Brad, Ellington, Laura, James and Tristan all turned their heads to see a fairly tall blonde haired woman, wearing boots, skinny jeans, a black leather jacket and a white top looking at them. She looked young. And if it wasn't for the fact she had her arms crossed on her chest and was looking for an answer, they would have all thought she was a student. But no. Definitely a teacher. "Is anybody going to explain?" She asked.

Obviously a new one too.

"Oh we were walking by and Ross decided to make his friend Laura throw her drink over Brad." Tristan answered.

"It was an accident!" Ross protested "maybe if you all walked faster it wouldn't have hit him."

Brad tugged on his shirt where it was damp as he could feel the water seeping onto his chest "Ugh, it's all wet and sticky. Thanks a lot you fucking ass." Brad snapped at Ross.

Ross held his hands up "Not my fault," he pointed at Ellington "he slapped me."

"Clearly not hard enough."

Ellington smirked. He knows he shouldn't have done that, given Ross is his friend and he's only spoken to Brad about twice, but he couldn't help it. He stopped when he saw the daggers he was receiving off Ross. He coughed "Sorry."

Ross shook his head. He turned to Brad "Hey, if it bothers you so much why don't you borrow a shirt or something. Or go to the toilets and use the dryer to dry it. I'm sure it'll help." Ross responded to Brad in a harsh tone.

"Brilliant idea, Ross," the woman said, with a sarcastic smile. She's taking it his names Ross, given he was called that this morning when that brown haired guy knocked into him. "And you know what? You can go with him and help him out on that one too."

Ross laughed "Over my dead body."

"Are you refusing?"

Ross looked up at the woman, raising his eye brows. He didn't even know this teacher and already she was obviously threatening him. "Yes." he answered.

She shrugged "Alright fair enough, suit yourself. I was kinda giving you the chance to be a decent human being there, but if you're going to act like a whiney school girl then suit yourself. I'll just call you Rose from now on instead of Ross." She said, causing the others to laugh. Ross's mouth fell open. She smiled at him and turned to Brad "Go dry yourself off in the toilets and if that doesn't work... you're going to have to suffer for the rest of the day being wet."

Brad nodded. The teacher waited till Brad was almost out the hall before looking at Ross with a slight grin and left herself. Laura laughed "You know, I really like that teacher. Whoever she is. I hope I have her for something as a substitute or something." she said, calming down her laughter. Man that teacher really did seem like a laugh.

Ross watched as the blonde left the hallway, still with the stupid smile/grin on her face. He didn't know what it was about her... but it was something. She had that look about her that told him she could be interesting but a weird kind of dangerous at the same time. The kind of dangerous where you're not supposed to go near something or attempt something, but you do it anyway.

"I don't." Ross replied, finally turning round. Finished with the death glare.

By the time Brad had managed to get his shirt dry, the bell had gone which meant lunch was over and he couldn't talk to Tristan and James about where he would meet them after the two hour lesson. Which meant he now had to walk home on his own. As well as go pick up Aaron and Natalie. Brilliant.

He got to his locker and sighed as he opened it up, putting in his bag. He didn't need anything important in it for music anyway. All Brad needed to do was show up with a pen and that was about it. Especially since they're getting a new teacher who probably has no idea where to start with the class – given it's half way through the year and he or she will have to make up their own plan or continue from where Mr Copperfield left off with him. Hopefully not. Because what he was doing was boring.

Theory. Theory about different harmonies and tonalities and stuff like that.

Brad fell asleep through most of the theory lessons. Which could be counted as every lesson, because Brad is pretty sure they never got a practical lesson to play with the instruments and do their own thing with him. Not that Brad wants to do that. He doesn't want to have to go off on his own with an instrument and come up with a stupid song or learn one.

Or better yet, be put with a group of people he doesn't know or like to come up with something.

Rocky and Ashton met up after lunch to make their way to the music lesson they had. There were two music teachers throughout the whole entire school, the new one and another teacher called Mrs Brooke. But Mrs Brooke was ill at the moment, seriously ill, so they had a substitute which is boring. The substitute is nothing compared to Mrs Brooke. Mrs Brooke is sweet, kind, caring and well... awesome.

They would have said hot, but she's in her forties.

That's why when they got told their senior class wouldn't have Mr Copperfield anymore they almost threw a party.

Rocky and Ashton were in their senior year, but Ross and Brad were in the grade below.

Of course, they still had Mr Copperfield as a teacher. But they only had him once a week for an hours lesson. They had Mrs Brooke, well now the substitute till she gets back, more than that. They had her like two or three times.

They came up to the door where Mrs Brookes' room is. Ashton tried to open up the door, but it wouldn't open. He tried it again but nothing. Rocky sighed "Look on the door dumbass."

Ashton looked to see a piece of paper taped to the door.

_Mrs Brookes' senior class, there is no teacher availible to take you on today. Please go to Mr Copperfield's old room where the new teacher will be taking you for the two hours you have._

Ashton tutted, turning round to Rocky "Guess we're about to meet the new music teacher then."

"We'd have met them anyway, remember?" Rocky asked, turning around as they began heading in the direction of Mr Copperfields classroom "we do, well did, have lessons with him."

Ashton nodded "Yeah, thank god that disasters over."

Ross walked into the music classroom, looking around where he saw the usual people sat there. The four who are always sat in the corner, two other people together, a couple of other people sat together who don't know each other but talk to each other anyway and then Brad sat on his own in the other corner of the room. He decided to avoid all eye contact with him before sitting down at the nearest space he could find.

Normally he would be preparing to be put in a bad mood by Mr Copperfield, but not today. Or anymore for that matter. They were getting a new teacher and he prayed to the high heavens that he or she was nothing like _him_. Hopefully they'd be cool and nicer and actually let them do things they wanted to do rather than do theory work all the time. They know it's important, but a little practical never hurt anybody. This is why Ross wished they had gotten Mrs Brooke's as a music teacher as all she ever seems to do is let them do is practical.

As he was lost in those thoughts, he was brought out of them by the door swinging open where a good number of other senior students from the other music class walked through – which confused everyone who wasn't a senior. They didn't ask them anything they let them find whatever seat they wanted and they sat in it.

Rocky and Ashton were the last ones to come in which left only two seats left in the classroom which were right at the back. Though, they had no complaints. They sat in the back in Mrs Brooke's class. Once they were sat down the door opened up again, which they figured was the new teacher, and it was. Ross looked up to see the blonde woman from the cafeteria this morning. "Oh for fuck sake." Ross muttered under his breath with a sigh.

"Right then," she said, standing at the front of the classroom in front of everyone "is this everyone?" she asked, everyone nodded and mumbled "I know you're all probably confused why a senior class has been mixed with this class today, but there's nobody to cover your class and the person who sorts that stuff out just thought 'hey, why not put them with the other class and put more stress on the new teacher on the first day than she already has'," she took a deep breath and sighed "but I'm sure it won't be that bad. You all seem like lovely people. Anyway, I'm Miss Lynch, but won't be Lynch for much longer. But, honestly. I hate being called Miss Lynch because it makes me feel old, and I'm not old. So I'll let you all call me Rydel—but, don't do it in front of other teachers. They might kill you _and_ me for it," she turned around and picked up two bits of paper from the class, which was the register for both classes "so this should be fun learning your names, even though I already know one or two of them." she said, directing that at Ross and Brad.

Ross rolled his eyes and continued to stare at his desk as Miss Lynch, or Rydel as she prefers, started to do the register for the senior class. At that point Ross had completely zoned out and wasn't paying attention until she was doing the next register and got to his 'name'.

"Rose?"

Ross looked up at Rydel and sent her a death glare, but everyone else looked around confused looking for this 'Rose'. Rydel let out a small laugh "I'm only messing with you," she said, marking him down "don't get into a mood about it."

Ashton sat at the back of the classroom, staring at Rydel before he decided to put his hand up "Rydel," he said, she looked at him "are you sure you're a teacher?" he asked.

Rydel nodded "Pretty sure." she said, putting down the register and being finally done with it "why?"

"Because you're too hot to be one."

Rydel laughed at Ashton "Oh, Ashton. You're so sweet. But I don't want to go to jail for peadophillia."

Ashton raised his hands "Hey, I'm 18 soon."

Rocky slapped Ashton round the head "Dude. You've got a girlfriend. And she's taken," he said, nodding to Rydel "did you not hear her at the start of the lesson?" he shook his head and looked away from him, looking at Rydel as if to apologise for Ashton.

Rydel smiled and shook her head at the two boys at the back. She leaned against her desk and looked around at everyone "Well, I'm taking it you're both doing different things in your two classes," Rydel said, stumbling for an idea for them all to do "because, I'm gonna be honest, I have nothing planned for this lesson. They didn't give me much notice. What did you use to do with the teacher that left?" she asked.

"Boring stuff," a student answered "theory. Hardly anything else."

"Oh," Rydel said, a little disappointed. Well that brought her down. "I hate doing theory all the time. I promise we'll do as little as possible of that," she said, walking round the desk to where her seat was. She looked on the desk and in the draws, like there was something in there that would give her an answer. Then something hit her. She let a small grin form on her lips, and she put her hands on the table leaning on it "Say, do you guys have any practice rooms where you can play with the instruments?"

"We have about three." someone answered.

Rydel smiled "Perfect. I see you have a lot of instruments," she said, walking round to the front of the desk "so here's what I'm going to let you all do. I want you all to get into groups, minimum two, maximum five. I want nobody working on their own, but if you have nobody to go with by all the time you've picked someone to go with I'll put you into a group okay? Regardless if it's seniors mixed with non-seniors. I want each of you to pick a song and learn it or make up some sort of composition by the end of these two hours and show it. I don't care how crap it is, just as long as you have something. Even if it's like five or ten seconds. I don't care! Get creative."

at that point Rydel's pretty sure both classes fell in love with her instantly, judging by the comments that she heard amongst the mumbling that varied from 'oh my god seriously', 'you're so much better than Mr Copperfield' and 'I love you'.

But she's pretty sure the 'I love you' came from Ashton.

She smiled "Go on. Get into groups. If you need any chords for songs, come see me and I'll try help you out." she said, turning round and sitting down at her desk, she took out her phone where she had to check something quick on it. When she looked back up, expected nobody to be left over within a couple minutes.

She was wrong.

Brad, Ashton, Rocky and Ross were left over. Everyone else had gone off to do their own thing like she asked.

"Oh, wow," she said, looking at the four "this... this is interesting. I didn't think you four would be left over. Heck, I didn't think anybody would be."

they all glanced around and looked at each other. And at that moment Brad realised what was about to happen.

"Do you all not have any friends or something?" she asked, jokingly. She looked at them all and neither of them gave a response "Or, is it because... you two," she pointed at Rocky and Ashton "only speak to each other, and you two," she pointed at Ross and Brad "don't speak to anybody at all?"

"Hot and psychic," Ashton said with a big smile on his face "man, you're making me fall in love with you even more."

Rydel scratched the back of her head "Ashton, stop. Please. It's getting scary now," she said, starting to feel awkward. She sighed, looking at them all and debating on what to do with them "Well, then. Off you all go."

"Huh?" Brad asked, like he had completely mis-understood that.

"The four of you. You all can be in a group," Rydel said "it won't hurt. Pick an instrument each and play it. You know once you've agreed on a song of course. Then go into the third practice room, I don't think anybody's using that."

Ross laughed "What makes you think I wanna work with them three?" He asked.

"Because you've got nobody else to work with and if you're on your own for the entire two hours you'll be bored out your mind." Rydel answered like Ross was stupid.

Ross groaned. This was the last thing he wanted to do. Work in a freaking group of people for something like this, and he's pretty sure by Brad, Rocky and Ashton's face they felt the same way too.

"Oh c'mon, stop being spoil sports," Rydel sighed "it's my first day. Go easy on me."

Ashton made an 'ugh' sound and got up from his seat "C'mon then children," Ashton said, directing it to Rocky, Brad and Ross "lets all be nice to the ho—new teacher on her first day. Don't wanna make a bad impression on her now do we?" he said mockingly – only to receive blank stares off the others. "Oh c'mon, it's not like we're all going to see or speak to each other again after these two hours, so we might as well get it over and done with." he said, making his way over to the door of the practice room.

Rocky sighed "I hate it when you're right." he said, standing up and following him.

"Go on then." Rydel said, nodding for Ross and Brad to follow them.

"It won't hurt to work together for a couple of hours." Rydel said as Ross and Brad groaned with unamused facial expressions. They slowly got up from where they sat and dragged themselves over to where Rocky and Ashton were at the door of the practice room like they were both walking the green mile. Rydel smiled, leaning back in her chair with her arms folded as she watched them. She shrugged.

"Who knows. Maybe something good will come out of it."

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**Yayyyy! Finally getting this story into full swing now. Woo! I was going to do something else before this actual chapter but I decided not to bc it would just be a filler. So yeah.**

_**5 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	6. Learn It

**Sorry for the wait on the update, I've been focused on TLJ cos that stories almost finished so I might as well focus on it till it's finished and then this story or Unpredictable can take its place :)**

**That, and I got 4 reviews when I asked for 5... and there's _8_ people following the story so... Can you all review please? Thanks.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps, 5 Seconds Of Summer or the song Seven Nation Army, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island, Capitol & whoever owns the rights to Seven Nation Army.**

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**Chapter 6  
**_Learn It_**  
**

To say the atmosphere in the practice room was awkward would be the understatement of the century.

Ross sat on a table that was attached to a wall, Ashton sat on a chair near the drums, Rocky sat on the floor by the door and Brad sat in a chair in the corner of the room. Ashton and Rocky knew each other and talked, but even now they were finding it difficult too. And they were older than Ross and Brad.

Nobody wanted to say anything. Mainly because they didn't want to do this anyway. Rydel had already been in once and asked them if they've got anything and are getting along, they told her yes and that they were working on it. Stupidly she believed them when she shouldn't have.

Now they were just dreading the moment she came back in.

And she did.

Before Ross even got the chance to tell them all she was coming, as he could see right out the door, she already walked through – looking down at everyone given that they weren't on eye level with her. She sighed, putting her hands on her hips "Guys, it's been thirty minutes, everyone's got something planned or figured, why don't you?" Rydel asked, looking at them all.

Everyone shrugged. Rydel rolled her eyes, folding her arms "And unless you each give me a valid reason as to why you haven't participated so far... You can forget about leaving at the end of the day and stay back for an hour and do the work then," She said, smiling threateningly. She turned to Rocky, given he was sat on the floor "Reason?" She asked.

Rocky looked at everyone, cursing himself under his breath as he couldn't think of anything. He shifted on the floor nervously "I um... er... I would get on with something... but... nobody's talking." Rocky said.

Rydel stared down at him "That's your reason?" She asked, he nodded "you can stay back an hour," she turned to Brad "your reason?"

Brad shrugged "I don't like music." he said, causing him to get funny looks off Ross, Rocky, Ashton and Rydel.

Rydel laughed "What do you mean you hate it?" Rydel asked "you took the subject."

"Actually this was the only subject left over by the time I had to pick." Brad corrected her harshly.

"Okay," she said, sensing there was something more to it than just him 'hating' it. She gave him the suspicious eyes, but he had looked away by then to even notice "If you hadn't snapped you would have been let off the hook, you're staying back an hour too," she said, making Brad almost jump out his seat in anger "Ashton?" she asked.

Ashton sighed, looking up at the ceiling in the hope something would come to him "I got nothing. Not gonna lie."

Rydel nodded. Ashton got the hint that he would be staying behind with Rocky and Brad for an hour which meant three hours of music now. She turned to Ross and smiled "Now then Rosey, why aren't you doing anything?" She asked.

He shrugged "Same as Rocky."

Rydel kept the smile on her face and faked her excitement "Oh, great! Four people being held back on my first day! Oh goody! It'll be a party." She turned around and walked out the practice room, keeping the door open whilst she caught the other students attenion, apart from the ones who weren't in the classroom or in the other practice rooms "Sorry, class. I won't be able to help you very much today because i'm focusing my attention on four idiots who don't want to take part. Don't worry though, no matter how much I help them nothing good will come out of it. Remember, don't blame me. Blame Brad, Rocky, Rose and Ashely."

Ashton ignored what Rydel said, but it finally clicked to him that the last part was a dig at him "Hey! I'm not a girl! My names Ashton, not Ashley!"

Rydel came back into the room, shutting the door behind her "Oh, please. Grow your hair a bit longer and grow some moobs, you'll pass for an Ashley." She said, making Ashton glare at her and the other three laugh. She clapped, taking a comfortable seat on the nearest chair in the room with her legs crossed and arms folded "So, c'mon then big boys. Too cool for school. Too cool to do anything. What instruments do you play?" She asked, aiming it at Ross, Rocky and Ashton "sorry, Brad. I'd ask you but apparently you hate music, so therefore you probably don't play an instrument." she turned her attention back to the other three.

The first ever conclusion the four came to that day in the practice room together was that Rydel was one sassy and sarcastic woman. Too good to be a teacher. "Well, I'm waiting," Rydel said, she sighed "do I have to give you an instrument?"

Ross shook his head "No. I play a little guitar."

"Brilliant," Rydel said, standing up and getting down a guitar that was hanging on a wall "have a rhythm guitar, seen as though you don't play much," she turned to Rocky "what do you play?" She asked, and he stayed silent.

"He plays guitar, very good actually when he tries." Ashton answered for him, mainly to annoy him and it worked. Rocky threw him daggers.

Rydel clapped again, spinning round to the wall where she got down another guitar and handed it to him "There you go, lead guitar seen as though your apparently so good," then she turned to Ashton "what do you play?" she asked.

Ashton shook his head "Nothing. I've never tried anything. I tried a bit of piano but that's girly, so... no. That's not happening I'm not playing a keyboard or piano. Also because the piano's in the other practice room and in Mrs Brooke's room."

Rydel nodded, placing her hands on her hips where she looked Ashton up and down trying to think about something. She turned around and began looking for an instrument, she looked over towards Brad where something caught her eye. A pair of drumsticks. She looked at the drumsticks where he gaze immediately took her to the drums that Ashton were sat next to and then to Ashton, back to the drumsticks, to the drum kit and to Ashton.

She smiled and practically skipped over to the drumsticks "Here," she said, handing them to him "you look like a drummer."

Ashton reluctantly took them from her, giving her a funny look "Funny. That's what my uncle said."

"Ash," Rydel said, taking a small pause "we're only saying it. Doesn't mean it's actually means you are a good drummer," she nodded towards the drums "hop on."

Ashton slowly raised from his seat and made his way behind the drums to sit on the seat there. Rydel turned round and faced Brad "Now, then, time for you," she said, pointing at him "I don't care if you hate music, protest all you like, but you will participate in this because you might actually like it. So pick. You've got a variety of choices. Piano or keyboard, lead singer or bass," She said "personally, I don't like bands that have a lead singer who can't play or doesn't play an instrument. So I'd pick bass or piano."

Brad stared at Rydel blankly, blinking a couple times "Yeah—no. I don't know how to play any of them instruments, and to be honest, I have no interest either. Ashton can't play drums apparently."

Rydel shrugged "So what? I'm gonna teach him, same as I'll teach you even if it kills me. So pick. Or I'll pick for you."

Brad sighed, sitting back in his chair with his arms folded "Pick for me. Chances are I won't be able to do it anyway."

Rydel shrugged her eye brows "We'll see about that." she walked over to Brad and took down the bass she could see hanging above him "it's weird," she said, holding the bass in her hands "you were all either sat in front, with or behind the instrument I imagined you to play..." she handed the bass to Brad "don't complain."

Ashton tapped the drumsticks together out of boredness, mainly to get Rydel's attention and it worked "So, er, is that it now?" Ashton asked "you given us all an instrument and now we get to play with them?"

Rydel shook her head "No, no. Every body's working hard out there and taking it seriously because it's the first practical lesson they have had in a very long time. And you know what? If they're going to do it properly you four are," she said "now Ashton. Hit the bass drum."

Ashton put his foot on the pedal and began hitting it like Rydel said. Rydel nodded "Great, now hit the snare drum, but, but, but. You might find it difficult doing both at the sa-" Rydel went to continue that sentence, but he did it without no problem. "Oh.. okay then," she said, finding it weird as the last time she tried to teach someone to do that they failed epicly. She scratched the back of her neck "Um... hit the er... hihat cymbals as well. Like I said, you might find it hard doing all three."

As soon as Ashton hit the hihats he stopped, finding it a bit difficult "Oh, shi—sugar... erm... No, no. Give me time, just... give me a couple of minutes. I'll do it, I swear." he said, suddenly seeming very determined to do it. And so he did, he went on to go and try to play what Rydel said.

She folded her arms and smied, turning to the other three "There. Surprising isn't it?" She said, seeing the look of surprise on Rocky's face "even someone who claims they can't do anything before they even tried can appear to be some sort of master at it. Exhibit A." she said, motioning at Ashton who had managed to play what Rydel said. And only in a matter of seconds.

Ashton laughed, standing up in victory and holding up his hands "I did it!" he said with a smile on his face "holy crap. I didn't think I would. Wow. That was so cool—and I'm getting excited," he let out a small laugh "huh. Weird. Never thought I'd ever have that feeling when it comes to music." he felt nervous about it, mainly because he actually enjoyed it a little bit.

"That's fine, it's okay to like something you've never tried before," she leaned back, turning to Brad slighty "take hints." she whispered loudly to him and Brad rolled his eyes. She stood back up straight "Try a little more. In fact, if someone in your family happens to have a spare drum kit around practice on that, listen to a song and try play it. You don't necessarily need sheet music to know it, just go along with what you think sounds right and work on it. Does anybody in your family have a drumkit?" she asked.

Ashton nodded "Yeah. My family decided that when I was about 14 I had anger issues so bought me a drumkit to let it out on. I used it once and broke the skin one of the drums. But it got fixed. Never went near it since. I think it's collecting dust in my basement."

"Well don't let it do that anymore," she turned round to Brad "your turn."

Brad shook his head. Rydel sighed "Alright, screw it, I'll let these three pick a song, if I know the bass line to it I'll teach you. Kay?" she asked. She wasn't really asking it was more of a 'you-have-no-choice'. She turned to the other three "Any songs out that you all like right now?" She asked.

None of them answered. "Guys, you pick it or I do." She said. She sighed "Get out your phones. Go through your music and see which song you all have."

the three reached into their pocket and took out their phones, standing in a small huddle together and looking on each others phone for a song that was the same that they had and liked. "Oh! Me and Ashton have that song, do you Rocky?" Ross asked.

Rocky looked at the song from Ashton's phone, he shook his head "Nope."

They sighed. "Oh my god, as if you have that on your phone, are you gay?" Ashton asked.

Ross laughed sarcastically "Ha ha, no. I'm not fucking gay. More on the edge of having a nervous breakdown. Are you gay?" he asked.

"Oh, funny." Ashton said, looking back down at his phone.

Ross shrugged "Hey, for all I know that Molly girl of yours could secretly be a boy."

"Or he could be hooking up with Luke, Michael or Calum in secret." Rocky commented, making Brad smirk in the corner. Rydel tried not to laugh.

She loved how they were barely getting offended by the comments they were making. Ashton just shook his head at them, ignoring them or saying something back. "This is no use," Rocky sighed, scrolling and trying to look at their phone as well "Oh! Stop! Ross! Stop! I have that song, let me find it!" he said, finding the song. Ross stopped scrolling and brought up the song that Rocky pointed too and soon enough he had it up on his phone. "Ash, do you have it?" Hhe asked.

Ashton looked at it "Yeah! I do hold on! I think I do anyway" he scrolled back to the top of his music and typed it in where it came up "Got it."

Rydel looked at them all, getting an excited feeling in her stomach for some reason "What song is it?" she asked.

"Seven Nation Army." Ross answered, showing her.

Rydel looked "You boys are very lucky. I know that song too, and guess what, Brad," she said, turning to him "It has a beautiful bass line in it."

Brad sighed "Brilliant."

"Right then," Rydel said, getting back to business "who wants to sing?" she asked, suddenly seeing all their faces drop "Oh c'mon, you can't expect to learn a song and not sing it. With me anyway. C'mon, two people at the max. just for this song. The only song you have to ever do together. Ever. Just this once. Ashton?"

"Hell no, drummers don't sing." he said, going back over to the drums.

"Alright, fair enough," she turned to Rocky "you?" he asked, he shook his head. She smiled and turned to Ross and Brad "Congrats guys. You two can sing."

"I don't know the song." Brad said.

"Then learn it."

Rydel sighed happily, going towards the door. She got to the door and put her hand on the door handle where she smiled, turning back round to face them "I know this is only a one off... more than likely never to happen again but..." she paused.

"But what?" Rocky asked.

"But I've got a good feeling about this."

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**Hope you liked this chapter! :) **

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	7. A Natural

**YAY! I have a chapter for you guys! WOO! & It's a long one. 4,246 words without the Authors notes! WOO! So yeah. Glad you guys are liking this story.**

**Oh! & look at the poster for this story! ISN'T IT PERFECT?! AHDIHFIDJVI my friend Olivia made it for me on Twitter (ItsOliviaR5, you should follow her and me too whilst you're at it: ashtonsbradR5). Like omfg. She says she's shit at edits, but she's really not. She also made my Unpredictable poster. Woo.**

**Anyway, enough of that! Enjoy!**

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**Guest Account Replies:**

**r5luv: **Yeah, I love writing Rydel's character :) How do you know my name? Haha. & Idk. I haven't discontinued it, I'm just so focused on this story and all my other stories so I've put that on a back burner until these are finished or until I have one of these stories left over before I start to continue it again :) Thanks! Glad you like it though!

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**Disclaimer: I do NOT own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter** **7**  
_A Natural_

The lesson didn't go as bad as the four boys thought it was going to go. Of course, Brad still thought it was going bad as Rydel tried to teach him the bass line to the song they were trying to learn and he couldn't get it right. Mainly because he probably didn't want to do it anyway. But he saw how well Ashton was doing and how Ross and Rocky were starting to get a grip of it and decided, he didn't want to be looked down upon by them and thought of as a stuck up bitch. So he started trying a little harder trying to learn it with Rydel, but nothing was really clicking with him.

"Alright," Rydel said, seeing how he was getting frustrated "have patience. Rome wasn't built in a day. Sometimes it takes people a little longer to get stuff right and click with them," she sighed, feeling slightly agitated herself but also a little happier now that Brad had actually found the attitude to learn "just try it again... but this time go slower. Go as slow as you can and when you think you've nailed it, go faster," She said, then seeing the disgusted look on Brad's face and she shut her eyes "yes, I know. I could have re-worded that better..."

Brad nodded "Yeah..." he said, getting ready to try play it again.

Rydel watched as Brad attempted another go at it, as well as listening to Ross, Ashton and Rocky in the practice room. She had taken Brad out of the practice room where nobody was to help him because the others were getting along with it fine, and she could hear them too. Occasionally she would hear them laughing or messing around together but most of the time she would hear them practising. Especially Ashton. Man he's loud on the drums. But that's not a bad thing.

Ashton pretty much had the song nailed, like he had been practising it for a week. And it had only been an hour and a half. Ross and Rocky were only just getting it perfect. Rydel gave them about two or three more run through's of it and she bet herself that they would have it.

All they needed was Brad too get it right.

And then of course add the singing to it.

Rydel smiled when she watched Brad trying to play the song, and he got it. Playing it very slowly, but he got it perfectly. She laughed "Brad! Oh my god! You did it! Well done!" She said, happily and giving him a small nudge.

Brad smiled happily also, being proud of himself "Wow, I did! Oh my god, I didn't think I would be able to do it..."

"Try it again." Rydel said, sitting on the desk in front of Brad. Brad nodded and did as Rydel said, playing it over again at the same pace. Rydel let out a little squeal "And that's all you have to play throughout the whole song! Now try and speed it up a little bit," Rydel said, getting a little bit too excited than she should really be getting "wait, before you try it faster. Do you think you will be able to sing and play it at the same time?" Rydel asked "because... it is a tricky song to sing and play bass with. If not I'll talk Ross into doing all the singing or Rocky to do it. Or Ashton."

Brad shrugged "Eh, I don't care." he said, then he tried playing it a little faster. He did it. Of course, he made a mistake on the last part but he did it again about three times and he got it perfect.

Rydel smiled again, nudging him on the shoulder "Look at you. What did I say?" Rydel asked, seeing him trying not to smile "you never know until you try things, because you might actually like it. Do you like it?" Rydel asked.

"It's not unpleasant."

Rydel grinned "There we go. I can see it already. You, on stage in front of thousands of people," she said – jokingly of course, making Brad's smile start to disappear but not because it was a joke "selling out arenas in a band. Or as a solo artist," she continued to joke. That was when she noticed his smile dropped and he looked down. Her smile dropped "What's wrong?" she asked.

Brad shook his head "Nothing..."

Rydel got off the table and pulled up a chair, sitting directly opposite Brad "Don't lie to me. C'mon. You can tell me. I won't breathe a word to anybody. Nobody's in the room."

Brad sighed, looking at Rydel and being uncertain if he really wanted to share this with her. But she had that face. You know that face you look at and you just immediately trust it and you have no clue why. "My Dad was in a band, a really good one. Really successful too, but... he went off the rails. The whole band did. There was four of them. My Dad and his three friends. My dad turned into an alcoholic and drug addict because it made him feel alive and it took the stress and pressure away from being famous because he couldn't handle it, but he ended up turning against me and my Mom. He's gone now. He's in jail. He doesn't get out yet for another year or so. Even then I still don't plan on seeing him."

Rydel nodded "Oh.." she said, now seeing everything clearer. It all made sense now. "That's why you hate music..." she said, Brad nodded "you're afraid that if you like music, or get into it, you'll become like him. Aren't you?" she asked, and again he nodded. She smiled, rubbing his arm "Don't you worry, Brad. Don't be scared about liking music just because of him, I know for a fact you will turn out nothing like him. I promise you that now. And if you do, then I'll let you break a guitar over my head. Does that sound like a deal?" Rydel asked "you try with music a little bit more, see if you like it – which you probably do – and if you turn out like your Dad, then I'll let you do that. Deal?" she asked, holding out her hand.

Brad smirked, knowing it was a joke but shook her hand anyway "Deal."

Rydel laughed and let go of Brad's hand. She looked over to the clock and her eyes widened when she saw what time it was "Oh my god! Guys! Class! It's time to pack away!" She called loudly so everyone in the practice room and everyone out in the hallway could hear her. But then the bell rang, meaning it was time for everyone to go home. "Actually! Just leave everything where it is, apart from the people in the hallway, I'll get the people staying behind to clear it up." she said, grinning to Brad and Rocky, Ross and Ashton as they came out the practice room who looked like they were going to kill her.

Once everyone grabbed their bags and coats and left the classroom, Rydel sat behind her desk and looked over to the four boys "Go on then," she said, with her arms folded and smiling with her feet on the desk "I presume you know where all the instruments belong. Brad, Rocky, Ashton, you three can do the three practice rooms and Ross, you can clear up in here. Off you all go."

all of them groaned, going to get on with what they were told to do – even though they thought Rydel was keeping them back to keep learning that stupid Seven Nation Army song. Well, they say stupid. It's actually a good song considering they all like it.

But hey, they don't have to see each other again after this do they?

Ashton sighed, glaring at Rydel from where he stood "You know, I thought you were cool, Rydel."

Rydel cocked her head from where she sat "What makes you think I'm not?"

"You're making us clean up!" Ashton called loudly as he walked into one of the practice rooms which was an absolute tip. He slammed the door shut behind him which made Rydel, Brad and Ross jump. Rocky was already in one of the practice rooms.

Brad shook his head, holding onto his chest where his heart was beating way faster than normal "That boy, I swear to god." he took a deep breath and went into the practice room.

Rydel took her feet off the desk and pulled the draw open to the desk where her phone was. She picked it up where she saw she had a missed call from a number she didn't recognise. She raised her eye brows and looked at Ross who was carrying a tambourine, several of them, trying to find the box it went into "Hey, Rose. I know it's very rare and you're probably not going to recognise the number ringing me, but do you?" She asked, holding out her phone with the number on it.

Ross sighed, throwing Rydel a glare as he dropped the tambourines in a near by box and he walked over to the desk "Stop calling me 'Rose' and I'll think about it."

Rydel blinked a couple times, staring at Ross blankly "Alright, R_oss_."

Ross squinted at Rydel, being untrustworthy as he knew for a fact she was still going to call him 'Rose' whether or not he liked it. He took Rydel's phone from her hand and looked at it. He shrugged "Nope. I don't know it." he put it back down on the desk and returned to cleaning up the classroom as the door opened.

Rydel put her phone in her pocket this time, shutting the draw on the desk, and she looked over to the door where she saw a tall boy – about Ashton and Rocky's age – with darkish blonde hair walk into the classroom. He looked confused for a moment before turning to Rydel "Is erm... is Ashton in here?" He asked.

Rydel nodded "Yeah, erm... who are you?" She asked.

"His friend Luke..."

"Oh, okay," she furrowed her eye brows together when she saw Luke's lip was cut and looked swollen "what's wrong with your lip?" she asked.

Luke put his fingers on his lips, almost forgetting what happened earlier "Oh. Ashton was talking to his _girlfriend_. I was sat on the floor right behind him and he fell over me and kicked me in the face by accident. Typical Ashton Irwin moment."

Rydel noticed the harsh way he said 'girlfriend'. She let out a small laugh "You sound like you really like his girlfriend."

Luke shrugged "Eh. He could do better."

Ross let a laugh escape from his mouth, listening out from the back of the classroom "What you?" Ross asked mockingly, without really thinking. He jumped when he saw the confused glare coming from Luke and Rydel's confused look at him. He looked back down into the box he was sorting out "Sorry."

Rydel shook her head "He's um... in one of the practice rooms."

"Thanks." Luke said before going into the practice room Ashton was apparently in.

Rydel looked over to Ross "Who's that?" Rydel asked, even though he told her his name.

Ross looked in the direction look went, looking through the glass on the door where he saw Luke and Ashton talking. He turned back to Rydel "Luke Hemmings. He's Ashton's best friend. At least I think so anyway. They're always hanging around each other. I always see them together, even when I'm not in school. The only time Ashton's not with Luke is when he's with his girlfriend... Molly I think it is..? I don't know. Why?" he asked.

Rydel stared over to the practice room, suddenly feeling intrigued. She watched through the glass as Luke and Ashton talked, still staring at them "No reason... they seem close that's all."

"Best friends are. Have you never had one before?" Ross asked like Rydel was stupid.

She sent Ross a death glare from where she sat "Shut up."

**Later That Night**

It was around seven and Ashton had got in from spending the majority, since school ended till now, of the time with Luke, Michael and Calum along with Molly and a couple of her friends. He got bored, otherwise he would still be out, and he saw how annoyed his three friends were getting.

Ashton's not stupid, he knows Luke, Michael and Calum don't like Molly. Mainly because Michael told Ashton straight up: _I do not like Molly, she deserves somebody who's just as much as a trash bag as she is._

Ashton never responded to that. He patted Michael's shoulder and told him "Whatever you say buddy" and left him alone. It was the way they all looked at her. Like they were going to kill her. Especially Luke and Calum. Michael didn't have to hide the fact he didn't like her, he showed it. Even to Molly herself who had complained to Ashton about it to do something and he told her that it's Michael and nobody can do anything about him, due to the fact he thinks he's punk rock.

That did not end well because Molly didn't find the funny side to it.

It was like the three all knew something he didn't. It was strange. But he knew that would go away soon. Hopefully.

Ashton shut the door behind him when he got in.

"Ashton, is that you?" his Mom called from the living room.

Ashton sighed "No, Mom. It's a rapist who just so happens to know where you live and has a key to the house." he called back, sarcastically.

"Oh, funny. Your dinners on the side in the kitchen. You better eat it."

Ashton got off the door and dropped his coat on the coat rack "Great," He said, even though he wasn't hungry. Ashton walked into the kitchen and saw his dinner sat on a plate on the side like his Mom said. He picked it up from the side and walked over to the bin, tipping it into it all the way to the bottom so she couldn't see. If she saw she would kill Ashton for wasting his food.

But the dude wasn't hungry.

He quickly shot his plate in the bin and walked out the kitchen as his Mom came down the hallway to go into the kitchen. Quickly, Ashton made his way towards the stairs as he knew she would notice. "Ashton! Where's your dinner? There's no way you would have ate it that fast!" She called for him.4

Ashton cursed under his breath, going to go run upstairs but realised he didn't have time. His eyes landed on the basement door and he charged towards it, crashing through the door and shutting it behind him as his Mom made her way out of the kitchen. He kept it open a crack and looked out of it, seeing her going upstairs. Ashton shut the door fully and made his way down the steps into the basement.

The basement was the same old place it use to be. Washing machine and dryer, a couch with a small TV and something covered up in the corner with a blanket.

"Ashton?"

that was his Mom near the basement door. "Oh shit." Ashton muttered. He ran over to the thing in the corner that was covered up, he ran behind it and lifted it up and hid under the blanket as he heard the door to the basement open. Whatever was under here there was a seat, so he sat on it in the hope his Mom wouldn't notice it.

His Mom groaned "Ashton, I know you're down here. Lauren ratted you out." she said.

Ashton sighed heavily "Really? Seriously?!"

His Mom smirked "Nope. Lauren's at her friends house," she said, coming down the stairs and over to where Ashton was hid. She folded her arms, and looked at the blanket covering what it was originally covering and Ashton. "Ashton. Why are you hiding under your drumkit you haven't played since you broke it when you were 14?" she asked.

Ashton furrowed his brow in confusement and threw the blanket off of him and saw the drumkit his Mom was talking about, the same one he told Rydel about earlier. He let out a small laugh, but needed to cover up so he didn't look like an idiot. "I er..." he took the drumsticks that were sitting on one of the drums "I was going to play them for a bit." he lied.

"Oh really," Ashton's Mom, Anne, smiled, knowing for a fact it was a lie "what brought this on all of a sudden?"

Ashton shrugged "We got a new music teacher today. She's hot. Very hot. She taught me how to play the drums today and I liked it. More than I should have," he said, smiling. This time telling the truth. "She taught me how to play this song called Seven Nation Army, you've heard it right? Yeah, and she taught my friend Rocky it on guitar and these two other guys Ross and Brad it too. We were supposed to perform it at the end of the lesson, but Rydel – the new teacher – lost track of time helping Brad. It's a shame. I think it would have sounded good together. I don't know."

Anne nodded, finally understanding "Oh! Like a band! So she put all four of you together like a band?"

Ashton shrugged "Kinda. But we're not going to see or play together again, unless the substitute doesn't show and Mrs Brookes doesn't come back or recover any time soon." he said, fiddling with one of the drums on the kit that didn't look right.

"But you enjoyed it... right?"

"Wasn't bad I suppose. We had fun, I guess. Well, me, Ross and Rocky did. Rydel was trying to teach Brad. Why?" He asked, looking at his Mom suspiciously.

Anne shrugged, making her way towards the stairs "Just saying. If you enjoyed it, it doesn't have to be the last time you see each other. Who knows. Maybe it'll go somewhere and you guys will form a band."

Ashton laughed "Ha, no."

"I'm just saying. You never know what could happen between now and a years time."

"RYDEL!"

Rydel jumped when she heard Connor shouting her, running down the stairs like an elephant. She was sat on the couch in their house watching TV and slowly falling asleep at the same time. Then he comes running downstairs like the BFG shouting her name and wakes her. She sighed, and turned her head as he entered the living room "Yeah?" She asked.

Connor had the phone in his hand, and he gave her a suspicious look "Did I wake you?" He asked, feeling slightly guilty.

Rydel shook her head "Nope," She lied "now, what do you want? Why were you running down the stairs like the BFG and calling me?"

"Oh, here," he said, handing her the phone "some woman's on the phone. She wants to talk to you."

Rydel furrowed her brow, standing up and taking the phone from him "Hello?" She answered, leaving the living room and going into the dining room with Connor following her.

"Hey," the woman said from the other side of the phone "is this Rydel Lynch?" she asked.

Rydel nodded "Yup. That's me. Who's this?"

"Oh, hi! It's Mrs Brookes, I'm other music teacher. I tried calling your mobile earlier but you never answered."

Rydel sat down at the table and smiled a little "Oh, hi! Yeah, sorry. I didn't recognise the number so I ignored it. Plus, I had to keep four students back. Two from your class and two from mine."

"Oh dear," Mrs Brookes said, like it was a bad thing "which four students?"

"Ummm... Bradley Simpson, Rocky Jenkinson, Ashley—I mean, Ashton Irwin and Rose—Ross Lynch," Rydel said, shaking her head at those mistakes. She's been so use to making fun of Ashton and Ross's names for the two hours she taught them, it's almost like an instinct to call them both by Rose and Ashely "yeah."

Mrs Brookes sighed "Rocky and Ashton. Oh god. Weren't they doing any work?"

"Actually, they did pretty good. I let them all do a practical given it was my frist lesson and I didn't have anything planned because I had a senior and non-senior class. The non-senior class said they never got any practical lessons with the old teacher, so I thought hey why not let them have one," She explained "Ashton played the drums, did amazing by the way! I've never known anything like it! And Rocky, oh wow. He's an absolute genius on guitar. Ashton was right, Rocky is amazing when he tries." she said, beginning to gush.

Mrs Brookes laughed softly through the phone "Oh.. well... they certainly have never shown it to me when I was there. They must like you then."

"Oh, Ashton sure does." Rydel said, slightly awkwardly due to the things he had been saying to her earlier. Connor laughed, getting what she meant. She rolled her eyes and kicked him in the shin.

"Anyway, that's not what I called for," Mrs Brookes said, getting back onto the subject "as you know, I'm currently off ill and I will be for a very long while. And before I took ill, I stupidly planned a school concert I can't cancel and I know it's your first day and it's putting a lot of pressure on you, but all the students that signed up for it are very excited for it and would be crushed if it was cancelled. So I was wondering if you could maybe plan slash take over from me for it. Just this once."

"Um... sure," Rydel said, liking the sound of a school concert "I can handle it. Sell tickets, setting up instruments, microphones, music, backing tracks... not too hard. I've done it before. I'd love to do it."

Mrs Brookes smiled from the other side of the phone "Oh, thank you so much Rydel! If I feel any better I'll come along and watch it, and it'll give us the chance to meet at last and what not," she said, Rydel nodded along "but erm... there's one last favour I need to ask of you. It's nothing huge or too stressful, but it does regard the concert."

"Okay, go ahead. Ask away." She said, even though she felt like it was going to be a stressful question.

"Erm... there's one space left on the list for people to perform at the concert," Mrs Brookes said carefully, in case Rydel reacted badly too it "and I've asked other students performing if they could do a second song, but they all said no... so um... I was kinda wondering if you could get a student to fill in that last spot."

Rydel shrugged "Sure. I'm sure I can get somebody to do it. Wait, do you want a solo act, duet, band or..."

Mrs Brookes sighed "Honestly. There are too many solo acts and duets, so I think a band would be nice for a change. I mean, there's already one band there. But another would be nice you know?" She said with a small laugh "do you think you'll be able to pull together a band?"

Rydel thought about it for a moment, not being able think of anybody "Um... I'm not sure. I can try my best."

"Look, Rydel. You don't have to get a band. You can get a solo or duet act from one of your classes."

Rydel let out a huff, feeling like she would be letting Mrs Brookes down if she didn't get her a band. She looked at the ceiling above Connor thoughtfully for a couple of seconds when something came to her mind, she looked then looked at Connor with the biggest grin on her face which made him very confused.

"Rydel..? Are you still there?" Mrs Brookes asked through the phone.

"Actually," Rydel said, leaning on the dining room table – keeping the grin on her face "I can get you a band. It might take a little convincing. But I'll get you one alright, even if it kills me."

Mrs Brookes smiled, becoming full of joy and relief "Oh, yes! Thank you Rydel! I can't ever thank you enough for this! Who have you got in mind?"

"Oh, Mrs Brookes... I have the perfect four boys for you."

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**Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)**

**Ooo! Who watched the TCA's yesterday or today & watched 5 Seconds Of Summer's acceptance speech? All I'm saying is: Wow Ashton. Wow. Haha.**

_**5 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	8. Convincing

**Yeah, sorry for the little wait on this chapter. I've been focused on finishing The Last Judgement and it's finally finished so now I'm kinda focused on finishing My English Love Affair now :)**

**Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, kinda tired so I couldn't be bothered reading through the chapter.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps & 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Island & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter** **8**  
_Convincing_

"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?!" Rydel asked, her voice raising in pitch.

It was the next day, after the phone call with Mrs Brookes, and Rydel had asked specifically for Ross, Brad, Ashton and Rocky to come see her after school and they did. Luke, Calum, Michael, Laura and Ellington were all waiting in the hallway for either Ashton or Ross, and the door was open so they could hear what was going on and what Rydel was asking them to do.

The person who said 'no' was Brad, speaking like it was behalf on all four of them. There was no way in hell Brad was performing in a school concert in front of people. Their hall, where the concerts are always held, is huge so there could be a lot of people going there. It is a popular concert that people go to as well.

Rydel sighed, looking desperate. She looked at Ashton, Rocky and Ross who were looking at her like they had misheard her "Guys, I promised Mrs Brookes. She called me last night and asked me to get a band rather than a solo or a duet because there's too many of them," She said, folding her arms "and when I promise things, I always deliver spectacularly."

Rocky nodded "Yeah, you promised her a band. You didn't promise her us four," he said, leaning back in his chair and by the look on Rydel's face after he said that it was clear that she did promise Mrs Brooks it would be them four. "Oh, you are fucking joking me."

Rydel moved around awkwardly "It's my second day, give me a break, we all make mistakes. I promised you four because you were all getting along so well yesterday."

"That was yesterday," Ross said, looking like he could kill Rydel "not today. Yesterday. Not tomorrow, not next week, not a few weeks from now, not in a couple of months and certainly not in a few years. It was yesterday, Rydel. There's a big difference between them times and _yesterday_." Ross couldn't stress that enough, feeling his nerves racking up.

"Alright, stop repeating yesterday, you've said that like a hundred times since you've walked in the room and tried to stress that point," Rydel said, holding up her hand and finding it a little weird. She took a deep breath "Guys, this is the only thing I'm asking you to do for me. I won't ask for anything else I promise. Why can't you do this one thing? There's gonna be other people performing and I'm pretty sure they're going to be worse than you."

"Oh, wow that really changes our mind." Ashton said sarcastically.

Rydel sighed, sitting down on her desk "Sorry. I just... I really want you guys to do this. I mean, you guys..." she smiled a little bit "in that music lesson yesterday, you all got along with the song so well and almost got it done but we ran out of time. If it's messing up you guys are all worried about then I'll keep the music department open for you on a lunch time or after school for an hour so you can practice every day till the concert, like a real band would."

Ross sighed "Rydel, for the last time I am not gonna tell you-"

Ashton slapped his hands down on the table in frustration, turning to him "Alright Ross we get the freaking point! It was yesterday! We know! Stop bringing up yesterday! We get your point! We get everybody's point now shut the fuck up!" Ashton raised his voice, getting annoyed and frustrated by him.

Rydel sighed and looked over to the door where she saw Luke, Laura, Ellington, Calum and Michael all stood outside waiting and feeling awkward with all the shouting going on. She sighed "Hey, you five," Rydel said, catching their attention "come in here for a second."

The five all came into the room slowly, not seeing what any of this had to do with them. Rydel folded her arms "Say for instance you guys had a music lesson together and you all got put into a group," she started "you got an instrument each and played it to learn a song, and you were all very good at it and picked up the instrument almost straight away and perfectly. Then the following day you were asked to play a school concert because the teacher thought you had potential and would do an amazing job at it. Would you?" she asked.

Laura shrugged "Sure. Why not. If I had the potential and the teacher thought I did."

Rydel looked at Michael who nodded, then she looked to Calum. Calum scoffed "Hell yeah, it's not very often I'm good at things and if I was good at something such as music, I wouldn't waste it." he said.

Rydel smiled "Now, I wish these four had that attitude," Rydel said, turning to them and back to Calum before looking at Luke "alright, Ashton's friend, if a teacher thought you had that kind of potential would you do it?" she asked.

Luke looked up thoughtfully for a moment and back down again, seeing the look he was getting from Ashton that told him if Luke said yes or anything that agreed to what Rydel was saying he would take him to the nearest freeway and throw him in front of an oncoming lorry. Luke looked back at Rydel with a smirk "Yeah. I would."

"You?" Rydel asked, looking at Ellington.

"Suppose so." Ellington said.

Rydel turned around, stomping a little on the floor "There you go. Five people said they were do it if they were musically talented," she said, holding out their hand in their direction "why won't you four? You clearly have the talen and potential."

Ellington smirked "Because they're all a bunch of pussies."

Rocky turned to Ellington and gave him a funny look "Excuse me?" He asked "did you just call me a pussy?"

"No I called you all a pussy." Ellington said, making the others laugh. The others meaning Michael, Calum, Luke and Laura as well as Rydel. That only resulted in Ross, Brad, Rocky and Ashton all glaring at him like they were about to kill him. Ellington shrugged "Hey. It's not my fault you're all wasting your musical talent. Well, apparently you all have musical talent, I don't believe it for a second."

"Me neither if I'm honest." Michael said with a sigh.

"Excuse me," Rocky said, standing up from his seat "I can play guitar. Very good actually, and I can sing and play at the same time too, and it's not very often people can do that."

Laura scoffed "Yeah. Right whatever. I may not talk to you Rocky, but I see you around school. I've never heard you sing let alone play guitar."

Rocky's mouth fell open, he swore that if Laura wasn't a girl he'd have hit her "You know what fuck this," Rocky said, he looked at Rydel "I'm in. I'll perform at that stupid concert and prove that I can, whether or not those three losers decide to jump in on board."

Rydel smiled "Thank you Rocky," she turned to Ashton, Ross and Brad "you three? Are you going to perform with Rocky?" she asked. They all shook their heads. She sighed, turning back to face the five "You know, did I tell you all about Ashton's amazing drumming skills?"

Luke laughed "What drumming skills? Ashton can't play any instrument even if he tried and his life depended on it."

Ashton rolled his head to Luke and glared at him "What?" he asked rudely, and at disbelief that his best friend was insulting him like that. Luke shrugged.

"Well, Ashton's friend," Rydel said, walking closer to her "that is where you are wrong. I gave him a pair of drum sticks yesterday and he clicked straight away. I've never known anything like it." she said, smiling at Luke.

"You know I have a name right?" Luke asked, looking at Rydel unamused and she just shrugged.

"Can I just add onto something here," Calum said, piping up and everyone looked at him "the last time Ashton played drums was when he was like 13 or 14, and he broke them because he banged them too hard out of anger. So how the hell he managed to play the drums yesterday without breaking them, please do tell and show."

Ashton cocked his head, becoming slightly irritated and annoyed by how his friends were putting him down and not believing in him "Well, um... lets see. I'm 17, 18 soon, and I'm a little less angry than I was at that age, so maybe helped." Ashton snapped.

Michael scoffed "Yeah, you seem less angry." He said sarcastically "you couldn't play drums when you were that age and you've never been near any other instrument, even in music and you take it. How do I know? Because you always ranted to me about how much you hated the lesson so I highly doubt that means you went near anything. Especially drums."

Ashton stood up from where he sat "Where are those drumsticks? I will go in that practice room and prove it to you now!"

"We don't want it proven to us now, we wanna go home." Calum said, slightly annoyed that he said to Ashton he would wait for him. Right now he was wishing he never. Everyone else nodded in agreement with him, they all wanted to go too.

Ashton took a deep breath "You know what, I'm gonna prove you all wrong. Count me in Rydel, I'll do the school concert with Rocky."

Rydel grinned, looking between Rocky and Ashton. She knew exactly what Laura, Michael, Calum, Luke and Ellington were doing and it was working a treat, and they didn't even realise. "Don't even think about telling us about Ross," Laura said, stopping Rydel from saying anything "I have a guitar at my house and he attempted to play it last week and he broke it. I mean, I know he can play it a little bit, but... obviously not well if he breaks a guitar by strumming the strings."

"That's because the guitar's old as hell!" Ross protested. Now they were beginning insulting him and he didn't like it.

Laura shook her head "No it's not Ross. My Dad took it to get fixed a couple of weeks ago, and once it was fixed you'd have thought it was a brand new guitar. But now it's broken in my room and my Dad won't fix it."

"Well he didn't break the strings on the guitar yesterday." Rocky said, sticking up for Ross.

Brad looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head "What is this obsession with yesterday? It's really getting on my nerves talking about it..." it was bad enough he had like 10 per cent motivation to actually say yes to doing the school concert, but the other 90 per cent of him was saying no.

Ellington shrugged "Eh, whether or not he broke the strings, he's not that good at playing guitar anyway."

"WHAT?!" Ross shouted.

"Sorry, dude, it's the truth," Ellington said like he didn't care "I may have told you, you were good in the past but it was a lie. I think my dog can play better than you."

Brad groaned "Oh my god, I'll do it," He said, also standing "I don't really want to get insulted by anyone. But I ain't making any promises I'll be good at whatever you make me play!"

Rydel clapped "Yay! So Ross, are you going to take that insult? Are you going to let him talk to you like that?" Rydel asked, getting closer to him "or are you going to prove Ellington wrong and everybody else who is standing in this room? Ashton and Rocky are, and it looks like Brad is too if he got insulted. so... I'll ask you again... Are you going to perform in the school concert?" Rydel asked.

Ross squinted at Rydel and glared over to Ellington and Laura. He looked back to Rydel and sighed, giving in "Alright, fine, I'll do it." he groaned.

Rydel clapped jumping up and down a little with a smile on her face "Yes! I knew you guys would come round!"

"Yeah, only because our friends are all ass holes and don't believe in us!" Ashton said, glaring over to Michael, Luke and Calum who all shrugged or grinned at him.

Rydel ruffled Ashton's hair, pouting at him "Oh sweetie, they were kidding, of course they believe in you, they just tricked all four of you into saying yes." She said, and all four boys faces dropped into disbelief whilst their five friends began laughing. Rydel smiled, with her hands on her hips "Alright then, see you at rehersals tomorrow lunch time or after school."

Ross picked up his bag and coat from the ground and walked towards Ellington and Laura as they exited the classroom "I'm gonna kill you both, I really am," Ross said, walking in front of them and away from them quickly as he went down the hallway "In fact, I'm just gonna disown you all as friends."

Ellington and Laura laughed, staying in the middle of the hallway as Ross walked off and they looked at each other "We're good." Laura said, laughing still before high fiving Ellington and they both quickly went to go catch up to Ross.

Rocky and Brad both left next which left Ashton, Luke, Calum and Michael alone in the classroom. Ashton turned around facing the full classroom "How did my bag end up half way across the classroom?" He asked, confused.

"Because when you got up from your chair in your little hissy fit, you kicked it away from you." Calum said as he and Michael made their way towards the classroom door "Now, we'll be outside waiting for you because we can't stand being in here anymore." he said and he and Michael both left.

Ashton mimicked what Calum just said and went over, picking up his backpack in a huff "Can't believe you all tricked us like that." Ashton said, turning to Luke who was behind him.

Luke shrugged "Hey, it's clear you apparently have musical talent so why waste it for?" Luke asked "I know I wouldn't."

"Music isn't something I really wanna do for the rest of my life. So why should I even use the talent I apparently have for it anyway if it's not something I wanna do?" he asked.

Luke laughed "Calm down, Ash. You never know, you could perform at that school concert and you might like it and then decide it's what you want to do for the rest of your life."

Ashton rolled his eyes "I highly doubt it."

Again, Luke shrugged "Yeah, well... I believe in you. So if it does turn into something you want to do for the rest of your life, I'll stand by your side and behind your back and support you all the way," Luke said, with a smile on his face as he knew for a fact that Ashton was gonna perform at the concert and like it "you know? Regardless if I'm living the dream with you or not."

Ashton tried not to smile and he shook his head, being a little bit confused "You say that like it's going to happen..."

Luke shrugged his bag onto his shoulder properly and began making his way to the door "All I'm saying is you never know unless you try." he said before disappearing out into the hallway.

"Did you two just forget I was in the room for a moment there?"

Ashton turned his head and jumped where he saw Rydel sat on her desk "What the hell Rydel!" he said, as he felt his heart rate picking up.

Rydel smirked "Sorry," she said, with her arms folded across her chest "but I thought it was sweet what he said. Luke's right. You never know unless you try, Ash."

Ashton shrugged "I don't know. I guess we'll see won't we." he said, giving her a quick sarcastic smile as he made his way to the door.

"Oh, by the way Ashton, need I remind you, Molly is the one who is in love with you and you're supposed to love her too."

Ashton stopped and turned to Rydel, looking at her confused "What are you talking about...?" He asked. What the heck did she mean by that? Of course he loved Molly. There is a reason why he is dating her. He wouldn't be dating her if he didn't love her.

Rydel shrugged, looking at him like he was supposed to know what she meant "Ashton... Luke's waiting for you outside. He's gonna be freezing to death," she said, staring at him "so's Calum and Michael." it was funny because the first part of that sentence had a double meaning to it but Ashton's too dumb to figure it out.

"Oh, shit! Yeah!" He said, suddenly realising because the weather outside is really bad today "Luke wait!"

Rydel tutted and jumped off her desk, sitting down in her chair "Oblivious. Completely and utterly oblivious." she sighed, looking over into the practice room where the boys were yesterday where she could see the drum and guitars all sat together and she smiled.

She had a really good feeling about this.

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**Okay, now I've just kicked off one of the problems they face as a band before they are even a band lol but it's not a major thing yet ;)**

**ALSO PLEASE READ: In your reviews (after you've commented about the chapter) can you leave a song or several songs (they can be by any other artist or R5, The Vamps or 5SOS) bc once they become near enough a band in this story, I'm gonna start basing the chapters off songs bc they're really going to help a lot with this story. So could you do that for me please? I already have a couple in mind :)**

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	9. He Doesn't Deserve You

**I AM SO SO SORRY FOR LEAVING THIS FOR SO LONG OMFG. I've just been focused on getting My English Love Affair done! Don't worry, this & Unpredictable WILL be my main priority when My English Love Affair is finished, and it's not far from finishing now :) So yay! :) **

**Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Virgin EMI Records & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter 9  
**_He Doesn't Deserve You_**  
**

Luke sat on his own in the window of some cafe, looking depressed as he looked out of it. It was pouring down with rain outside so it really suited his mood right now. It was a Saturday too, and aren't Saturday's meant to be happy? Not sad and gloomy. Yet here he is. Debating on whether or not to walk outside and throw himself in front of the next oncoming bus.

He was supposed to go with Ashton somewhere today, but he decided not to. Given that he, Brad, Ross and Rocky would be performing for the school concert in a few days time and they were going somewhere to try practice the song they had agreed on. Apparently they swapped from Seven Nation Army to Counting Stars because it wasn't fair on Brad as he would have to do most of the musical work on that song. At least that way, everyone has to do something.

Apparently Rydel had found them somewhere to practice on week-ends, and even though they weren't so bothered about the school concert they just wanted to make Rydel proud and happy because she really wanted them to do this for her.

And that's why they were doing this.

For her.

Luke doesn't know where Michael and Calum are, or what they're doing. Knowing Michael he's probably sound asleep in bed still and Calum's probably doing... typical things Calum Hood would usually do on a week-end. Then there's Luke. Sat in a cafe on his own.

"Hey, Luke."

Luke looked up to the familiar female voice and saw Molly standing there at the end of the table. He rolled his eyes and looked away from the one girl he cannot stand in the entire world. "Is er... Ashton here?" She asked nervously.

Luke shook his head "Nope. Don't worry. You can continue what you're up to without him knowing or finding out." Luke snapped. _For now._

She sighed in relief. She went to go walk back over to the counter and back to who she was with, but stopped and looked back down at Luke. "Listen, Luke. I know you don't like me—"

Luke scoffed "Can you blame me?"

She shut her eyes and re-opened them, looking at Luke with an angry smile as she was trying to be nice to him but clearly it's not going to work when he has an attitude like that. "I know, and I don't care," she simply said "but I think it's best that we try to get along for Ashton's sake. Don't you?"

"To be honest, I don't really care if we don't get along. Because the more we don't get along the more Ashton won't want to be around you and me at the same time. Then one day he'll question why I don't like you and why I don't get along with you," he slowly turned his head and smirked at her "and then I'll answer him: because your girlfriend's a cheating slut. Oh, and then poor Ashton will be heart broken and sad. It won't be my fault. Nope. It'll be yours."

Molly rolled his eyes and dropped her arms to her side "Shut up, Luke. You're not going to tell him at all, or you'll regret it."

Luke shook his head "No I won't. Because then he'll break up with you and lets face it, he'd be better off without you. Anybody who knows about this thinks that."

"What? You, Calum and Michael?" She asked in a mocking tone, refolding her arms "Oooh... I feel so threatened." she said sarcastically.

Luke shrugged again "Hey. All I'm saying is that once you're out of the picture, everything can go back to normal and the way it's supposed to be." he said, sipping on his drink.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"All I'm trying to say is that he can find someone who is much better than you and that he actually deserves. Because you are not that person. He doesn't deserve you."

Molly glared down at Luke, wanting to slap him across the face so badly. She just wanted to pick up the glass he had in front of him and smash it over his head. She went to bend down more but some blonde girl came over "Is everything alright here?" She asked, noticing how Molly was acting towards Luke. She heard everything she said, as well as Luke.

Molly turned to the girl and smiled at her "Everything's fine. Thanks for asking. Whoever you are."

The blonde girl looked down at Luke. Luke shrugged and smiled at her a little bit "Actually, she's annoying me. I'd prefer it if she left me alone," Luke said "thanks for asking, _Olivia_." he looked up at Molly and smiled sarcastically at her.

"Hey, Luke!"

Luke, Molly and Olivia turned their heads where they saw Ashton coming over with Rocky, Ross, Brad and some little dark blonde kid following behind. Ashton stood in between Olivia and Molly, he smiled at Molly and gave her a hug "Hey," he looked back at Luke after he pulled away "I thought I saw you in here. What are you doing here on your own? You too," he said, looking at Molly "what are you doing here?" he asked.

Molly shrugged "I just wanted to get out. But now I've gotta go so I'll see you later or at school on Monday." she smiled. She kissed Ashton on the cheek and waved at the others before leaving through the door of the cafe.

Luke shook his head and glared as he watched a guy follow her out of it. He turned back to Ashton who had sat down next to him now along with the other four, Olivia had walked away as they came over. "What are you guys doing here?" Luke asked.

"We got hungry and where we were practising doesn't really do food, so Ashton suggested here," Rocky said "I hope it's good."

"Who was that?" Ross asked, looking over to where Molly and Olivia had left.

Ashton turned his head to Ross "My girlfriend Molly. Why?" he asked, suspiciously.

Ross shook his head "No, no. The _other_ one, I know who Molly is. Yeah, I'm talking about the blonde one."

"Olivia..." Luke answered, not seeing the relevance to what they were talking about. He looked at Brad who had the little kid sat next to him "Who's the kid?" he asked, trying not to sound rude.

"Oh, Aaron," Brad answered, having his arm around him so that he didn't fall off the chair "he's my little brother. My Mom took out my little sister and my step-Dad's at work, which means I have to look after him. He's been with me _all_ day."

Luke nodded "Right. Anyway, I better be going." he said, beginning to climb over Ross and Ashton who were sat next to him in the booth.

Ashton gave him a suspicious look "Why? Where are you going? What's wrong?" he asked, sensing something was wrong with him.

"Nothing," Luke said "I just need to get home. I'll call you later. Bye now." he quickly walked away from the table to leave.

Ashton sighed, looking at the other three and Aaron "I'll be back in a minute." Ashton climbed over to Ross who groaned again after having Luke climb over him. Once he had gotten over Ross, he went straight after Luke.

Ross moved about trying to get rid of the slight pain he got from Luke and Ashton climbing over him. He rolled his neck and rubbed it "No, but seriously. Who's that girl?" he asked.

Brad and Rocky either rolled their eyes or sighed at what Ross had just said. Brad moved in the chair, getting up from it with Aaron "I better get him back home," Brad said, grabbing his hand tightly and making sure he never let go and ran off "my Mom and step-Dad will be home soon."

"Couldn't your Dad have just looked after him for today?" Ross asked, flipping through the menu. He assumed Brad had a Dad somewhere around LA that he still seen. So why couldn't he have looked after Aaron whilst he practised?

Brad sighed, looking and becoming annoyed "No. I don't. Thank you for asking." he said before practically storming away from them both to leave too.

Ross looked up and watched as Brad went away annoyed, and clearly upset. Rocky watched too and looked back to Ross confused "I'm not going after him," Rocky said "Ashton's already gone after Luke."

"I'm not going after him either. I barely know him."

"You've been spending a week and a half with him..."

Ross shrugged "So? Doesn't mean anything. I don't know, I'll ask him about it later or something."

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**Sorry for the short chapter, I promise they'll get longer! :)**

**I am in the middle of trying to make a video for this story too like I have with My English Love Affair & The Last Judgement & other stories, so I'll let you know when that's done :) It's just if I want the video for this story to work, it has to be perfect. Otherwise it won't work. & I REALLY want it to work. haha.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE **_


	10. Can You Keep A Secret?

**Yeah, I'm not gonna do the song-chapters just yet. I think I'm gonna wait till AFTER this chapter bc I couldn't find a song that fitted this chapter well enough lol.**

**Hope you enjoy the chapter :)**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Virgin EMI & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter 10  
**_Can You Keep A Secret?_

The four boys were up in the practice room at school, practising the song they would be performing tomorrow for the school concert for Rydel. They all had it drilled into their heads that the reason they were doing this, was for Rydel because she wanted them too and made a promise to Mrs Brookes. After all, the only time the four boys would see each other again was either in the hallways or in a lesson they had together. And Ross only had music with Brad because Ashton and Rocky were in the grade above, and they also had music together. Rocky and Ashton were pretty bummed out that they weren't allowed to have Rydel again, only for that one lesson where the supply didn't show up.

But even in their lesson they had of music they would always sneak out, pretend they were doing something productive and go into Rydel's classroom if she didn't have a lesson and then they would do something productive in there. Rydel mainly just got them to keep practising the song they were performing with Ross and Brad, which was Counting Stars. It was a little bit difficult considering they were missing two singers, a rhythm guitar and a bass player. Rydel helped out as best as she could.

Currently the four of them were running through the song, and were about half way through. They managed to decide that all of them would sing during the song at a certain time, Ashton sung less because of him being on the drums and it was more difficult for him. So Ashton just joined in on the chorus with Rocky, and then on the second part of the chorus when Ross joined in. Basically how it went was that Rocky took the very first part of the song, Brad would sing the first verse, Ross sang the bit before the chorus but after the verse and then Rocky and Ashton would take part of the chorus and then after they would repeat it and Ross would join in. Then repeat.

Rydel became impressed that they managed to figure that bit out without getting into a fight about it. But, then again they weren't too confident on singing in front of the entire music hall. Overall though, they did have very good voices. Maybe if they tried a bit harder they could be better.

As they were practising, Rydel walked into the practice room as she could hear them coming up the hallway. So she went into her classroom and saw them in the practice room. She opened up the door and shut it behind her, standing in front of the four and waiting for them to finish. They were only on the second chorus, which meant they had the bridge to go and another chorus. But once they saw Rydel they decided to cut the practice short and stop after it.

Mainly because Ashton stopped drumming, and they can't exactly keep the song going without the person who is supposed to keep them in time with one another.

When they stopped, Rydel smiled and gave them a small clap "Well done guys! That was great!" She said, enthusiastically "well... from what I heard coming down the hallway. Seriously though, you were great. You guys are going to do amazing tomorrow. And don't worry, it'll be the very last day you have to spend with one another." She added, knowing they felt a little bit uncomfortable spending time with each other as they were different from the people who they do hang around with normally.

She smiled at them all again after finishing the sentence. Brad rolled his eyes and took off the bass, placing it down where he went over to his bag and got out his phone. Rydel watched the boys as they either stepped away from their instruments or put them down. She played with her hands nervously "Um... I hope you guys don't mind, but I'm going to be recording the concert tomorrow," She said, taking a slight pause "especially your performance."

Rocky got up from where he crouched on the floor like a meerkat "Why?" He asked, getting defensive and worried why Rydel would want to record them.

"Because... Mrs Brookes said she might not be able to make it with her being sick. So in case she doesn't make it, I'll record the concert and that way I can send it to her through either e-mail, or by going to her house to show her it. You know, in case she's one of those people who doesn't know how to work a laptop or any sort of technology." Rydel explained.

Ashton piped up from the back of the classroom, nodding "She is."

After school had finished, the boys did what they normally did after practising together. They went their separate ways. Ross went off to get the bus back home with Laura and Ellington, Ashton met up with Luke, Michael and Calum or Molly and Rocky went and met his friends. As for Brad, he left school and went the complete opposite way everyone else went. All because he had to go to his little brothers school and pick him up.

He had been waiting outside for at least five minutes, waiting for him to come out. A lot of children had come out of the building ever since Brad had gotten here. He would have went inside and got Aaron, but the last time he did that he got funny looks from older parents – who were actually their parents – and then got asked if Aaron was his son. By the look on Brad's face, they soon realised Aaron wasn't. He kinda gave them the look that told them that if they didn't back away and shut the hell up they would be digging their grave in the nearest cemetery.

Normally his Mom would pick up Aaron, but Natalie didn't come to school today because she was ill. So therefore his Mom had to stay home and look after her, his Step-Dad would have came and got Aaron but no – he's working. Which left Brad. Not that Brad minds. Aaron is the only member of his family that he can actually stand for longer than ten minutes.

It sounds harsh, but it's true. His Step-Dad rarely talks to him any more, his Mom's been a little more distant from him ever since he told her about the band thing and the school concert (only because it's a similar way to how Brad's Dad started in his band, so she just assumes – obviously – that Brad is going to turn out like him) and Natalie never hangs around long enough for Brad to actually like her. She's nine. And she's got a better social life than Brad does.

Brad waited at the gate patiently for Aaron. He played on his phone to pass time until he felt his legs being tackled by small arms in a hug. Brad put his phone away and looked down seeing Aaron there, looking up at him with a smile "Hey," Brad said greeting him with a smile.

They walked out of the gate and Brad made sure Aaron held onto his hand so that he didn't run off into the middle of the road and get splatted by an oncoming bus. As they began to walk back home, Brad felt a little bit hungry so he asked Aaron if he wanted to stop by somewhere on the way home and get something to eat, and of course Aaron said yes so they made their way to some food place.

Given that Brad isn't very familiar with food places but McDonald's due to the fact he doesn't get out very much, the only place Brad could think of was that cafe Ashton suggested to him. But wouldn't it be a little bit weird if he went there after someone he's been hanging out with for two, almost 3, weeks suggested it to him and took him there? It wouldn't hurt because the chances are Ashton wouldn't catch him there. Why is he even worried about Ashton catching him there anywhere? It's a cafe. Anybody can go to a cafe without being questioned about it.

Now he was just being stupid. This is why he doesn't stay out on his own for too long. Even with his six year old brother.

Brad and Aaron sat down at a table. They sat down in one of the booths so that Brad didn't have to catch Aaron every time he fell off a chair at a table. It was less work and effort. He listened to Aaron blabbing on about his day in school, about some kid who's a bully, about playing on the monkey bars, about some girl he met and whatever else he felt like telling Brad about that was no doubt a lie. After all, it's what kids do best right? Lie. It makes everything more interesting for them that way.

Brad couldn't help but laugh at him. Every time Aaron went off on one talking like a six year old, he had this twinkle in his eye that made him completely adorable. Brad has to make sure that if he ever see's a girl he likes, he needs to have Aaron with him because he's pretty sure he could win her over with his adorableness.

Eventually Aaron stopped talking, and Brad was glad because he thought he was going to talk until his ear drums burst – not in an annoying way, it's just the way kids are when they talk. "Is my Dad going to be home?" Aaron asked, referring to his Dad but Brad's Step-Dad "I didn't see him today."

Brad nods "Yeah, he should be. If not, he'll be in later before you go to bed. You could see him then."

Aaron nodded with a small smile on his face. "What about your Dad? Why don't you ever see your Dad?" Aaron asked, being as curious as a six year old could get. He may be six, but he knew that he and Brad didn't have the same Dad, but he had never met or seen him before.

Brad became slightly uncomfortable and moved around uncomfortably. If Aaron was any of his friends like James or Tristan, they would have asked him what's wrong. But because Aaron's too young to even understand stuff like this, Brad was grateful he wouldn't be questioned on it. Brad shook his head, trying not to think about it and he gave him a small sad smile, trying to be happy but he couldn't at the mention of his Dad "It's a long story," Brad said, rubbing his arm nervously "but long story short... he wasn't a very nice man, and in the end he got what he deserved."

"Why wasn't he nice?" Aaron asked.

"I'll tell you when you're older when you'll understand. Right now you're too young. But I promise I'll tell you one day."

Aaron smiled at Brad again "Can we go to the park tomorrow?" He asked, quickly changing the subject.

That was another thing Brad loved about Aaron, somehow he understood in his small brain when a situation was uncomfortable and change it. Either that or he was doing it because he was six, and little kids' minds do tend to change subjects quite a lot. Brad went to go say yes, but stopped "No... Sorry. I can't," he said, remembering the concert was tomorrow "but maybe if you ask Mom or your Dad they'll take you."

Aaron frowned "Why can't you come?" He asked, wanting his older brother to come rather than his Mom or Dad.

"I have to do a concert at school, and I have to be there early to practice."

"Can I come and watch?"

Brad nodded "Sure, why not? We'll see what Mom and Dad say."

As Brad said that to Aaron, he caught something in the corner of his eye. He looked over to the other side of the cafe to another booth where he saw Molly who, as far as Brad knows, is Ashton's girlfriend. And by the looks of it, she was with some other guy... being flirty.

Brad found this really suspicious, because he's pretty sure Ashton never said anything to himself, Ross or Rocky during band practice about them breaking up. Then again, Ashton's a senior. Why would he want to tell someone younger than him about a failed relationship he had? Brad continued to watch Molly and this guy, but he was still confused because he saw Ashton and Molly this morning together and he had his arm around her. Unless they broke up after Brad saw them..?

But Brad got his answer when Molly leaned over and kissed the other guy on the lips, which took Brad by surprise. His eyes widened and he looked away from them both and back down to Aaron. Clearly Ashton and Molly have broken up.

But why the hell didn't Ashton say anything today?

Oh well, he'd ask him tomorrow before the concert.

The day of the concert arrived, and all day Ross, Brad, Rocky and Ashton had been at school practising. They had a quick practice on the stage set up downstairs, but then they came back up into Rydel's classroom to practice. Right now they were getting what they needed for their one-off performance together, guitar pics and drumsticks because stupidly they left them all up here when they went down which meant they had to borrow the other bands pics and drumsticks that's performing tonight.

Actually, the concert starts very soon so more like in minutes.

But Ashton didn't leave his drumsticks up here. He broke them yesterday banging to hard on the drums. Needless to say Ross was not happy when a drumstick came end first into his eye. Of course Rocky and Brad laughed at Ross's pain because he thought his eye was going to fall out of his socket, and even though Ashton found it hilarious he was panicking because he thought he had made Ross go blind. He may be a joker most of the time, but he has a heart of gold that cares a lot.

As they were getting their things together, Rydel walked into the classroom muttering something under her breath with a camera in her hand. Rocky noticed her "What's wrong?" Rocky asked.

Rydel stopped when she got to her desk and held up the camera she had in her hand "This stupid camera. I was testing it out this morning and it's not working properly. It'll only record when it wants to, but not when I want it to!" She said, getting frustrated. Rydel hit if off her hand and it started recording "Ah! See!" She sighed heavily and shut the camera off. She sat down on her desk with the camera beside her "So, are you all nervous?" She asked, quickly getting back into a better mood.

Ross shook his head. "Nope." Brad answered. "Why should I be?" Rocky asked. Ashton also shook his head "It's not something I have to do again, so why should I be nervous?" Ashton asked "that. And there's nobody that I know coming tonight but my Mom. And I don't exactly have to impress my Mom and make sure I don't make a fool of myself in front of her. Do I?" he asked.

Rydel laughed "Are you sure about that?" Rydel asked, referring to nobody he knew coming "because I saw them down in the hall about five minutes ago."

"WHAT?!" Ashton shouted, throwing his drumsticks on the floor.

Rydel laughed again "Yeah, they're all stood at the side of where the seats are where they can have a good view. Courtesy of moi. The one that looks Asian, the tall one with the quiff and the one with red hair? Those are your three main friends right?" She asked.

Ashton groaned "Oh my, God, he dyed his hair AGAIN?!" Ashton sighed heavily and turned around, going to pick up his drumsticks. He saw that they landed next to Brad, so he walked over to them and picked them up.

Brad looked beside him, feeling someone's presence next to him. He saw Ashton getting his drumsticks off the floor by his feet. As Ashton stood back up, Brad quickly got his attention "Hey," Brad said "I know it's none of my business but... I didn't know you and Molly broke up."

Ashton stared at Brad puzzled "What are you talking about?" Ashton asked, like Brad had spoken a foreign language "we haven't broke up." he said, spinning one of the drumsticks in his hands.

Again, Brad became confused "What? But... I thought... I saw her—"

Ashton gave Brad a suspicious look, but they were both cut off and interrupted by their conversation by someone coming through the door.

Ellington came through the door with Laura behind him "HEYYYYY!" He put his arm around Ross when he got over to him "are you nervous?" he asked.

Ross glared at Ellington as soon as his arm went around him "No."

"Oh, c'mon... you've got to be a little bit nervous," Ellington said, beginning to tease with a smirk on his face "I mean... there is a lot of people in that music hall. More than I expected. I thought there was only going to be about twenty people, but it looks like there's about sixty or seventy... maybe even a hundred dude. And most of them are students from our school and—"

Laura rolled her eyes "No there isn't."

Ellington pushed Laura away from him and Ross so that she couldn't kill his vibe of whinding Ross up "Don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she's talking about. But seriously... what are you going to do if you fall over on stage to a hundred people? They're going to be laughing at you and playing the moment over and over and over—"

"Someone shut him up before I snap his neck." Rocky snapped, trying not to listen in on Ellington teasing Ross but he couldn't help it.

Rydel sighed, getting the camera off her desk as well as getting off it herself "Well, I'm gonna go get this thing set up downstairs. Show time is in 10 minutes. Good luck." Rydel smiled at them before leaving the classroom and making her way down to the hall.

Rocky sighed, getting his guitar pic "We better get down there and get this over and done with."

Rocky started to leave the classroom as well as Ross, Laura and Ellington following. Ellington put his hands on Ross's shoulder's as they began making their way down the hallway "Break a leg."

"I'll fucking break yours in a minute if you don't shut up." Ross snapped, pulling away from Ellington.

Brad shook his head and laughed a little, hearing what Ross had said to Ellington. He grabbed his guitar pic and whatever else he needed and went to go leave the classroom, but Ashton grabbed Brad by the arm and stopped him "Why did you think me and Molly broke up?" Ashton asked.

Brad shrugged "I don't know... I was... I was at the cafe yesterday and I thought I saw her with some other guy. It must have been the wrong girl," he pulled his arm out of Ashton's grip, he began rubbing his arm and made his way towards the door "I could have sworn it was her though." he mumbled, but it was loud enough for Ashton to hear.

Brad chose to ignore the suspicious eyes Ashton was giving him and left him alone in the classroom. Ashton stared at the door where Brad had left through and began to think about what he had just said to him before leaving the classroom himself.

**Next Time: **Counting Stars

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**Yay this story is finally getting somewhere.**

**Sorry I've been taking a while to update, I've been reading The Fault In Our Stars and it's causing a lot of pain right now. I'm on Chapter 22. So... I'm past the MOST painful bit in the story, but I'm still not done with the pain. Damn this story is so good but painful, I've cried at like two chapters in a row like what the hell. **

**But yeah, I do have a chapter of My English Love Affair coming along :) So hopefully that should be up by the end of the week :) If not, come hunt me down with sharp pitch forks and fire & make me update bc that stories pretty much done now. **

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


	11. Counting Stars

**Sorry for the little wait on the update. I know I always use My English Love Affair as an excuse, but it's true haha. It's just taking longer than I thought to finish, but don't worry that story only has like 3 or 4 chapters left then I can focus on this story & Unpredictable more & post my other story I have planned out to replace My English Love Affair. YAY.**

**Anyway, thanks for waiting & reading! Enjoy!**

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**Guest Account Replies:**

**Mashed potatoes: **I deleted Time Can Be Re-Written bc I'm going to be re-writing Written In The Stars which is the prequel of that story :) So don't worry. (I Haven't deleted Written In The Stars yet)

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps, 5 Seconds Of Summer or the song "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Virgin EMi, Capitol & Mosely Music Group/Columbia/Interscope Records!**

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**(1) One Republic Counting Stars**

**You can either listen to the original version of Counting Stars OR you can listen to the one The Vamps & R5 did together in London :) I don't mind lol. I think the Vamps/R5 one would make more sense tbh bc then you'd have a basic idea of how it goes in this chapter lel.**

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**Chapter** **11**  
_Counting Stars (1)_

After leaving the classroom, Ross, Rocky, Brad and Ashton all came into hall where the concert was being held. Ellington and Laura had rushed ahead of Ross and Rocky to go find somewhere good to sit whilst Brad and Ashton came in a few seconds later than the other two boys.

They saw the hall was almost completely full with people, either of parents, brothers, sisters or people from their school they normally see around. None of the popular kids, so that was a bonus. Someone was up on the stage already performing, which meant she must have been about the 10th person as the concert had been going on for the past forty-five minutes and Rydel probably had to introduce it all and what not. Given Mrs Brookes wasn't here to do it herself.

The boys stayed at the door of the hallway, either watching the performance going on or the crowd. Rocky watched the crowd, the others were too busy watching the girl perform, and he saw how everyone looked bored by this performance, which started to make him feel really nervous because she sounded really, really good. Ross turned his head and saw a nervous look on Rocky's face "What's wrong?" Ross asked.

Rocky kept his eyes on the crowd "Nothing. It's just the way the crowd's reacting to the girl," he said, turning back to Ross "they're acting like she's shit and is boring them to death, but she's not. She's really good."

"Don't get nervous about it," Michael said, approaching with Luke and Calum and hearing what Rocky had said to Ross "There was a band on earlier and they absolutely killed it. They made the crowd go wild and everything."

Ashton sighed as Michael said that, knowing for a fact they weren't going to be anywhere near as good or were going to be able to make the crowd scream, shout or do whatever that band did. Not that he cares, it's only a one off performance. But when you're doing something as a one-off you kind of want to make it good and unforgettable right?

Ashton turned away from the boys to go over to the table and get a drink, but as soon as he turned around he ended up colliding into someone. He grabbed them by the arms so that they didn't fall to the ground, as the person was quite small and Ashton is like a tank and he'd probably kill him or her. He looked down at the person and saw Molly. Molly smiled when she saw him "Oh, hey Ashton, I was just coming to find you."

Ashton smiled at her too, keeping his arms gently on her shoulders "Yeah, I was gonna come look for you too. I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Oh, what?"

"Who was that guy you were with yesterday at the cafe?"

Luke, Michael and Calum all glanced at each other when Ashton said that, hoping inside that this was about to go in the direction where they hoped it would go. Brad looked at the three boys and noticed their looks, now knowing that it was actually Molly in the cafe yesterday, and not some random girl that looked like her, kissing another guy. Quickly Brad pieced it together in his head, figuring it out in his head that Molly's a cheating slut. He would have said that out loud, but he didn't want to draw attention and he doesn't have the confidence too.

Molly started to become nervous a little bit. She wiped the palm of her hands at the top her jeans, feeling them becoming sweaty "W-what guy? I didn't go to the cafe yesterday."

Ashton shrugged "Oh, I don't know. But I know it was yesterday. I got told by a friend of mine. And... I saw you as well on my way home. You were very close. Not to sound like the overprotective boyfriend or anything."

Molly smiled reassuringly "Don't worry, Ash. He's just a friend I hadn't seen in a very long time. We were actually going to meet a few other of my friends. I just met up with him to go there. Now, I'm going to go find a seat, because I know you're on next." Molly gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked away to go find a seat.

Ashton sighed, staring at the spot in front of him, debating on something in his mind as well as being slightly angry. He turned around and faced everyone "I'm turning gay. I'll have better luck that way." He said seriously, but was actually joking, making everyone laugh a little.

Luke walked up next to him, patting his shoulder and giving him a sympathetic look "I'm sorry... I've been wanting to tell you, but... I've never found the right moment..."

Ashton shook his head "It's not your fault," he looked over at Brad "thank you for telling me."

Brad shrugged, letting him know it was okay – even though he never meant to tell him. It was an accident. And by the looks of it, a very good accident. Luke, Michael and Calum then all walked away to go find somewhere in the room to sit where it would be good to watch them perform.

As the girl on stage finished performing, Brad felt two small arms wrap around his legs. He jumped a little bit, and when he looked down he saw Aaron looking up at him smiling, still hugging him. Brad smiled back at him and picked him up "Hey," Brad said.

Brad looked behind Aaron and saw his Mom coming towards them. "Hey, have I missed the performance?" She asked, Brad shook his head "good." she said in relief.

The boys watched as the girl got off the stage and the next person got up off their seat and went on stage, getting ready to perform. Ross took a deep breath "We're next."

"Oh, well if you're next, I'm going to go find a good seat quickly." Brad's Mom said, taking Aaron from Brad.

They waited as the boy introduced himself and started playing. As they watched the performance start, Rydel crept up beside the four boys and smiled, having her arms folded across her chest "Hey," She said, getting their attention "how are you all feeling?" She asked.

The boys all replied with 'okay' or 'fine' at the same time. "Have you got the camera working?" Rocky asked, referring to how she was trying to get it to work before upstairs in the classroom.

She shrugged "Ish. I got it working for the first few performances, but it stopped recording. But then I got it to record again. But then it stopped, started again and stopped. So by that point I gave up," She dropped her arms back down to her waist "my fiancée's here, so he's currently trying to fix it from where the camera is so it will record."

Ashton smiled "Oohhhh! My competition's here, how great, I can't wait to meet him." He said, jokingly. Rydel rolled her eyes at him, seeing Ashton still wasn't over the 'why-is-there-a-hot-teacher-working-at-our-school-for, what-went-wrong-for-her' phase.

"Why are you recording all the performances for anyway?" Ross asked, being curious.

"I told you yesterday, if Mrs Brookes doesn't make it then I'm going to record the performances for her and send it to her later."

Rocky groaned "You do realise she's not very good with technology, right? She can barely use her e-mails. The only thing she knows what to do on a computer is log on and use YouTube. And the only reason she knows how to use YouTube is because of our class and her having to constantly put music on through her laptop. So the chances are that you're going to have to upload our performances to a YouTube channel and let her watch from there."

"Oh, yeah! Then lets watch and see who's performance goes viral first!" Ashton said sarcastically, pretending to be ecstatic.

Rydel laughed "Don't worry. I'll send the videos to her e-mail and make sure she watches them. Even if I have to go round her house with my laptop. I won't put them on YouTube for everyone to see unless I have to."

Connor came over to Rydel and the four boys seconds later after they had finished talking and were watching the current performance. "Right, okay," Connor said, catching all of their attention "I've got it working and recording. But I don't know how long it's going to record for, and I know that teacher is going to want a full performance and not half of one." he explained.

Rydel nodded "It's fine, just as long as it's recording again."

Connor motioned in the direction of where the camera was "You better go to it now and make sure it's recording what you want."

"I will, thanks." She said, about to make her way over to it but was stopped by Ashton's voice.

"Hey, make sure you record all of our performance. After all, you're going to want something to remember me by when I graduate later this year." He said, still teasing and joking. Not that he would finish high school in one piece, he'll probably end up dropping out when it gets closer and closer to the end because of all the stress and what not.

"You must be Ashton." Connor said, with his hands together and pointing at him with a sort of suspicious look on his face. He wasn't bothered by Ashton, in fact he found it quite hilarious at what he said to Rydel.

"Yeah... why?"

Connor shook his head "Nothing. I've er... just heard a lot about you, that's all."

Ashton went to go respond to that, but the guy on stage finished his performance and everyone started clapping and cheering. That immediately made the four boys nervous and have butterflies in their stomach, as they never realised this moment would come by so fast. "Break a leg." Connor said before walking away.

Rydel smiled at the four of them "Good luck guys. Don't let me down." She said, quickly going away from them to get back to the camera. This was one performance she really wanted to record and keep for herself, as she felt this was going to be something special.

The four boys all glanced at each other and began to slowly make their way to the stage, becoming nervous. Though, they don't see why they should be nervous. It's only one show, which also happens to be their last. They're never going to see each other again, so why wouldn't it just drill into their heads for?

As they walked to the stage, Ross caught Ellington and Laura sat at the side of the crowd near Michael, Calum and Luke. He saw Ellington stick his thumbs up with a sarcastic smile and he rolled his eyes. Brad went to go walk up the stage steps, seeing Rocky and Ross had already, but as soon as he saw Ross and Rocky walk on it something in Brad made him bail out on doing this. He turned around to run, but collided into Ashton who was coming up behind him. Ashton smiled at him, holding onto Brad's shoulders "Don't even think about it sunshine. If we suck, you're going down with us."

Brad groaned and turned around, now having to do this. They grabbed their instruments that were already on stage and got into place whilst Ashton sat behind the drums. Ross sighed and shut his eyes when he heard Laura's voice shout: "WOO! Go Ross!" during the silence, making him feel a little bit embarrassed. He knew for a fact Ellington put Laura up to doing that.

Ashton lifted his microphone to his lips "I guess I'll introduce us then seen as though you three don't look like you're going to do it," He said, looking at them and how they looked so nervous. "Alright, we're The er... well... the nothing because we don't have a band name. Not like it matters. We're not exactly going to perform or talk to each other again after this anyway. Not unless we're forced too. _Again,_" he said, giving Rydel a small glare "but, yeah. I'm Ashton if you didn't already know, the one that looks like Jesus is Rocky, the Ellen DeGeneres look-a-like is Ross and the poodle is Brad."

After Ashton said that, the only thing that could be heard was Rydel's giggle as she was the only one who laughed. She stopped almost straight away, realising all eyes were on her including Brad, Rocky and Ross's glare. "Sorry." She said, looking back to the camera.

Ashton sat back down behind the drum kit. He took a deep breath "Here goes nothing..."

Rocky glanced around nervously, knowing he had to be the one to start off the performance and sing first. He breathed deeply and started off on the guitar, making everyone else on the stage feel nervous as now there was no going back on what was about to happen for them.

Rocky put his lips to the microphone _"Lately I been, I been losing sleep," _he started singing, sounding a little nervous in his voice, but it would probably go away soon _"dreaming about the things that we could be, but baby, I been, I been prayin' hard. Said no more counting dollars we'll be Counting Stars. Yeah, we'll be Counting... Stars."_

Next Ashton had to start on the drums, as well as Ross on his guitar, but if he was completely honest he thought he was going to end up missing it due to his nerves getting the better of him. But no. He managed it okay, and as did Ross. But the only reason Ross managed it okay was because he wasn't looking at everyone watching him in the crowd, and neither was Ashton but he could still feel everyone watching him.

Brad felt like he was going to be sick, knowing he was next to sing and he was almost sure he was going to fuck it up. He'd find a way too. _"I see this life, like a swinging vine, swing my heart across the line, in my face there's flashing signs, seek it out and ye shall find, old, but I'm not that old, young, but I'm not that bold, and I don't think the world is sold, I'm just doing what we're told," _Brad stepped away from the microphone, still playing on the bass, being proud that he hadn't fucked it up yet.

In fact, he didn't see anything to be nervous about because it looked like the crowd was enjoying it, by the way they were smiling, clapping or singing along a little bit.

Ross didn't even bother to think twice about it, there was no point, as soon as Brad finished his bit he went straight into it _"I, feel something so right, by doing the wrong thing. And I feel something so wrong, by doing the right thing. I couldn't, couldn't lie, couldn't lie. Everything that kills me makes me feel alive."_

After, Rocky came in again for the chorus singing, as well as Ashton _"Lately, I been, I been losing sleep. Dreaming about the things that we could be, but baby, I been, I been prayin' hard. Said no more counting dollars, we'll be Counting Stars," _Ross then joined in with Rocky and Ashton to finish the second part of the chorus _"Lately, I been, I been losing sleep. Dreaming about the things that we could be, but baby, I been, I been praying hard, said no more counting dollars, we'll be Counting Stars."_

Rydel stood at the back of the hall, making sure the camera was still recording and it was. She smiled as she felt excitement building up inside of her as she could see everyone in the room was really enjoying it as Brad went on to sing the second verse. _"I feel the love, and I feel it burn, down this river every turn, hope is our four letter word, make that money watch it burn. Old, but I'm not that old, young, but I'm not that bold. And I don't think the world is sold, I'm just doing what we're told."_

_**Ross: **And I, feel something so wrong, by doing the right thing._

_I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie_

_**Ross/Brad: **Everything that drowns me makes me wanna fly._

_**Rocky/Ashton: **Lately I been, I been losing sleep (hey!)_

_dreaming about the things that we could be,_

_But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard,_

_said no more counting dollars we'll be Counting Stars_

_**Rocky/Ashton/Ross: **Lately I been, I been losing sleep (hey!)_

_dreaming about the things that we could be,_

_But baby, I been, I been prayin' hard,_

_Said no more counting dollars, we'll be,_

_We'll be Counting Stars_

_**Brad: **Take that money watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I learned._

_**Brad/Rocky: **Take that money watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I learned_

_**Brad/Rocky/Ash: **Take that money watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I learned, take that money watch it burn sink in the river the lessons I learned._

_**Brad: **Everything that kills me..._

_Makes me feel alive._

_**Rocky/Ashton: **Lately I been, I been losing sleep (hey!)_

_Dreaming about the things that we could be,_

_But baby I been, I been prayin' hard,_

_Said no more counting dollars, we'll be Counting Stars_

_**Rocky/Ashton/Ross: **Lately I been, I been losing sleep (hey!)_

_dreaming about the things that we could be,_

_But baby I been, I been prayin' hard,_

_Said no more counting dollars, we'll be,_

_We'll be Counting Stars_

_**Brad/Rocky/Ashton: **Take that money watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I learned_

_Take that money watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I learned,_

_Take that money watch it burn, sink in the river the lessons I leanred,_

_Take that money watch it burn_

_**Brad/Rocky/Ashton/Ross: **Sink in the river the lessons I learned._

At long last the song finished and they stopped, where the majority of the crowd got on their feet and clapped. Michael and Ellington were both clapping and whistling at the same time, Laura clapped ecstatically from where she was with a huge smile on her face. Aaron was in his Mom's lap, also clapping and moving around excitedly as a little kid would.

Rydel had her hands on either side of the camera, looking around at how the crowd was reacting to them. She started grinning/smiling, feeling proud and excited of the boys and their performance. She clapped for them, still with the grin/smile on her face. She looked back to the camera, seeing it was still recording and had caught their entire performance – even the beginning of it with Ashton speaking. She smiled even more and jumped a little bit.

Ashton stood up from his drum kit and looked around at everyone clapping for them and smiling. He looked around the crowd, trying to see where Molly was but couldn't see her. Molly stood up too in the crowd, clapping and waving her arms to get Ashton's attention but she couldn't. He still looked around for her to try and get her attention, but instead he caught Luke's eyes and not Molly's. He saw Luke smiling at him and clapping with some sort of proudness, and Ashton smiled back at him, then looking down shyly a few seconds later as he felt his cheeks getting warm, like an embarrassed school girl who just made eye contact with her crush after staring at him.

Wait, _what_?

Molly noticed that and she slowly sat down in her seat, looking over to where Luke was with Michael and Calum who were completely oblivious to their little glance to each other.

The boys all jumped off the stage as quick as they could, feeling happier and more enthusiastic than they did before they actually went on stage. They even felt like they could get up there and do it again, but they knew they couldn't or can't. Ross quickly ran over to where Laura and Ellington were, Rocky went over with them as nobody had came to see him perform today and Ashton went over to where Michael, Calum and Luke were.

As Brad found his Mom and Aaron by the exit of the hall, Ross came away from Laura and Ellington so he could go to the bathroom because he was busting. Aaron hugged Brad tightly as soon as he came over and Brad hugged him back, smiling. He let go of Aaron where his Mom then hugged him "That was amazing, Brad! I didn't know you had it in you!" She said, happily.

Brad pulled away from the hug, smiling "Thank you."

Rydel walked away from her camera and Ross began to walk by Brad and his Mom, and both of them could hear the conversation they were having. Brad's Mom smiled proudly at Brad, not knowing what to say "Oh, it was really good! I'm so proud! You reminded me exactly of your Dad when he first started out in his band."

Rydel stopped walking when she heard Brad's Mom compare Brad and his Dad together, and so did Ross. Ross became confused as he watched Brad go from happy to sad mixed with angry in less than two seconds. Rydel's eyes widened as she couldn't believe that his Mom had just made that comparison with Brad and his Dad – as Brad did tell Rydel what he did to go to jail, and Brad was nothing and would never be anything like that. And that was one of Brad's main fears as well. Turning out exactly like him if he ever got into music.

Brad's happiness dropped quicker than a brick to disbelief mixed with sad and annoyance "Oh..." was all Brad managed to get out as Ashton and Rocky now made their way over. But they stopped when they got near Rydel, when they figured something was going on. Judging by the way Brad looked, Ross looked confused and Rydel looked like she could rip someone's head off as well as looking on in disbelief. "I reminded you of my Dad..." Brad said, then taking a deep breath.

Right then, Brad's Mom realised she made a mistake and she shouldn't have said that. But she couldn't help it, he did. But she meant it in a good way, not a bad way. Brad sighed "Yeah, I'm gonna go now. Thanks for that." He snapped before turning around and heading for the doors.

Ashton, Rocky and Ross all shared confused glanced and they looked to Rydel for an answer. She sighed and began to head off in the direction Brad had ran "Brad, wait up!" Rydel called, going after him.

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**Thanks for reading! :) Hope you enjoyed it! :)**

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	12. Viral Videos

**Hey guys! I figured I'd better update this before you all forget that this story exists & before a certain someone (Olivia) kills me. **

**So, here we go! I hope you enjoy it & it makes up for me not updating this story in like a month :)**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Virgin EMI & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter 12  
**_Viral Videos_**  
**

Monday soon came, but none of the four boys had seen each other since. They really did mean it by them only doing one show and them never having to see or speak to each other again.

Ross went back to Ellington and Laura, Ashton went back to Luke, Michael and Calum, Rocky went back to Alexa, Maia and his other friends and Brad went back to Tristan and James. They didn't so much as glance at each other when they saw one another in the hallway this morning at school.

Well, not Brad because he wasn't at school for some reason. But Ross has a pretty good idea as to why.

Probably because of what went down at the concert with his Mom and he doesn't want to be questioned about it by everyone. He'd much rather wait until it has passed over and been forgotten about by everyone. But Ross highly doubts he'll forget about it. He still wants to ask him about what was wrong and what had happened. He'd even texted him the night it happened to ask him if he was okay, but he never responded. Brad was ignoring Ross.

Nice.

Ross wasn't too sure if Brad really was at school today. He didn't have music so he couldn't double check. He'd seen Ashton and Rocky, but not him. That's why at the end of the day he attempted to go look for him before he had to go to Rydel's classroom, because she wanted to talk to him about something. He doesn't know what, but he guesses it's about the concert. Or Brad. Or both.

He went to the places where he normally see's Brad with his friends, but he wasn't there. He double checked like three times until he saw Tristan and James walking down the hallway by themselves, without Brad, which gave Ross his answer. Brad wasn't here today.

Or maybe he's already gone to Rydel's classroom, as she did ask for him, Brad, Rocky and Ashton together.

He turned around and headed for Rydel's classroom.

When Ross got into the classroom he saw Rocky and Ashton sat on the two front desks, but no Brad. Rydel turned around when she heard the classroom door open and smiled when she saw Ross "Hey, take a seat." she said, going over to behind her desk.

Ross went over to the desk next to Ashton's and sat down at it "Where's Brad?" Ross asked.

"Oh, he's not in today. I've checked already."

"Why did you want us here?" Rocky asked, sitting up in his chair "the concert stuff's over. There's nothing else we need to do for you. Is there?" he asked.

Rydel got up from behind her desk and stood in front of the three boys "I just wanted to tell you all personally that you all did an amazing job at the concert. It came out a lot better than I expected it to. Even other people came up to me and told me how great you all were, and that made me happy and feel kinda proud," she said, now having her hand on her chest with a smile "so good job guys. And I'll be telling Brad this when he gets back to school."

The boys all said thanks before Ashton popped his collar "Well, I told you I was pretty amazing." he said, jokingly. Only to receive a slap around the head from Rydel. He yelped in pain and held the side of his head where she slapped him.

Rocky let out a small laugh and turned back to Rydel "Did Mrs Brookes get them videos of the concert?" Rocky asked.

As soon as Rocky said that, Rydel became nervous and puffed her cheeks. She scratched the back of her head nervously "You see... the thing is about the videos..." She said, only making the boys nervous "I managed to send them all to her through her e-mail... but... yours wouldn't send to her. I tried again yesterday and I tried again this morning, and it still wouldn't send. I think it's cos your performance is the longest one that was recorded and the e-mail only lets you send a limited amount of time of a video, if that makes sense," She said, the boys nodded "so... unfortunately... that means the only way I'm going to get it to her, because it looks like she isn't coming back to school any time soon, is by putting it on YouTube, because if I wait for her to come back the chances are the video will have been deleted or I will have a new laptop. But, I don't want to put it on there without your permission. I'll take it down as soon as she's watched it, I promise." She explained.

Ashton, Rocky and Ross all glanced at each other to see by their faces if either of them had a problem about it. The only reason Ashton wants Mrs Brookes to see the video of them performing is because she told him that he's not good at anything when he comes to music, just for the fact he sits around and does nothing. But this video shall prove her wrong. And by the looks of Ross and Rocky's faces they didn't care either.

"I don't care."

"Neither do I."

"Knock yourself out. But you don't have to take it down if you don't want too," Rocky said, with a small shrug "it's not like anybody important's going to find it and slam us down for it if you keep it up there."

Rydel smiled and clapped "Yay! Thank you! Now go on. I won't keep you in here with each other any longer. You can all officially go your separate ways now and never see each other again, unless you have to." She said, watching them as they all got up from their seats and exited the classroom.

When the three boys got out of the classroom, they all walked down the hallway in the same direction in an awkward silence until Ashton finally broke it "So, what was wrong with Brad and his Mom?" Ashton asked "I heard her say something to him and he didn't look very happy. I don't know what though."

Ross shrugged "I don't know, I was going to find out today and ask him but he's not in."

As this happened, Rocky had his phone out of his pocket, looking at it where he groaned. "What's wrong?" Ashton asked, hearing his groan.

Rocky put his phone back into his pocket "My Mom told me that I have to walk home by myself because she can't come and pick me up. So that means I'm going to have an incredible half an hour journey home by myself." He said sarcastically at the last part, and sighed.

The last time he had to walk home from school by himself he almost got ran over by a car in some sketchy neighbourhood he had to walk through to get to his house. It wasn't very nice. He could have sworn he saw God's light as the car was inches away from him.

Ashton rolled his eyes "Don't be stupid, I'll drive you home if you want." he said. Rocky shrugged and accepted that offer. Ashton turned his head to Ross who looked like he felt a little bit awkward being with them both "Now, I'm not gonna leave you out. So, do you want a lift home too?" Ashton asked.

Ross felt surprised that Ashton had offered him a lift home, and he even looked it. Ross nodded "Uh, sure... If you're offering..."

Rydel sat at her laptop in the music classroom, a few seconds after the boys had left, sorting out the Counting Stars video to upload to YouTube. She clicked the upload button on the website and sat back in her chair, watching as it began to upload, and she began smiling as she thought back to the night of the show and their performance.

She couldn't help but think about how special it was and felt to her. Even Connor said it was definitely something special as you could tell they enjoyed themselves up there, and Rydel hasn't seen anything like that for a very, very long time.

"Uhh, Miss?"

Rydel spun round in her chair to face the door of the voice where she saw Luke stood there "Oh, hey Luke. What's up?" She asked.

Luke stepped into the classroom, nearer to her desk "Has Ashton been here yet? Because, I was supposed to go home with him today."

Rydel laughed "He's literally just left with Ross and Rocky, so he shouldn't be too far away. I'd hurry if I were you." she said, nodding towards the door.

Luke told Rydel thanks and went to go leave the classroom, but saw something on Rydel's laptop. He cocked his head and stood behind Rydel's chair to take a closer look at it "What are you doing?" He asked, noticing it was the Counting Stars video from the concert.

Rydel kept her eyes on the computer, seeing the upload was halfway done "I'm uploading their performance of Counting Stars onto YouTube."

"Why?"

"Because, I sent all the videos to Mrs Brookes of the concert, and long story short, Ross, Brad, Ashton and Rocky's performance wouldn't send because it was too long. I tried and tried again etc, etc. So my only other resort was YouTube, so I asked them and they told me it was okay." She explained, telling him the short version of the story rather than having to explain the full thing again like she did to the other boys.

Luke nodded "Alrighty then, I'll remember to watch it later."

Rydel looked up to Luke "Did you enjoy their performance?" She asked.

Luke nodded again with a smile "Yeah, it was really good. I'd watch it all over again if I could, and it looks like I'll be able too as well. I mean, it's weird..." he said, looking up thoughtfully "Ashton seemed so happy performing that night, and... I don't think I've seen him happier."

Rydel smiled up at Luke, resisting the urge to say something but decided against it. She just nodded and smiled. "Anyway," Luke said, snapping out of his little thoughtful trance "I'm gonna see if I can catch up to Ashton."

Rydel waved, watching as Luke left to catch up to Ashton. She sighed and turned around to face the computer again.

Ross walked into his house after being dropped home by Ashton. He was the first to get dropped off as Rocky lived a little further ahead of Ross. When he got in, he turned around to find his older brother Riker stood on the stairs giving him a suspicious look "How come you haven't come home with Laura and Ellington like you normally do..?" Riker asked, with his arms folded.

"Because I got a lift home from Ashton..." Ross said, making his way into the kitchen as he found it weird how Riker was suddenly starting to notice different things in his life. He never did before so he doesn't see why he's starting now.

Riker followed Ross "Isn't he one of the guys you did the concert with?" Riker asked as they were now in the kitchen, Ross nodded "So, I'm taking it you're all staying as a band."

Ross gave Riker a funny look "No... why would you think that?" He asked.

"Because, if you were all going to do that one and only performance together, why are you all still hanging out?"

"It was a ride home from school because he offered... Nothing else."

Riker shrugged "Did you get their numbers?"

Ross rolled his eyes "Riker, it was a performance not a date." Ross pushed passed Riker and made his way out of the kitchen.

Riker watched as Ross left and saw his phone on the kitchen table. He picked up his phone and scrolled through his contacts to see if he did actually get their numbers.

_Ashton Irwin_

_Bradley Simpson_

_Rocky Jenkinson_

Riker smirked and put his phone back down on the table. Oh, they were so staying together as a band. Ross just didn't know it yet.

**1 Week & 3 Days later**

Connor sat downstairs in the house that he and Rydel shared whilst Rydel was upstairs throwing her guts up in the bathroom, having been sick for a few days now. But she's still went in to school to work, even though she had to leave the classroom a few times to throw up – but hey, nobody noticed. Much. As she finished throwing up, she washed her hands in the sink and then washed her face.

"Rydel!"

Rydel sighed and went downstairs, seeing Connor on the laptop where he had a weird grin on his face that told Rydel she's either done something she shouldn't have which Connor finds hilarious, or Connor's done something he shouldn't have. "What..?" Rydel asked, suspiciously and going towards the laptop.

Connor motioned Rydel to stay where she was away from the laptop as he rested his elbows on the table and put his hands together "Do you remember that school concert and all the performances?" Connor asked. Rydel nodded, not quite seeing the relevance to the huge smirk on his face. "Right, and you put one of the performances on YouTube didn't you so that Mrs Brooks could see?" he asked.

Rydel started to become nervous, thinking that Mrs Brookes might not have liked that Rydel put the performance on YouTube and now she's probably going to get into major trouble. Oh, God, what if she gets fired?

Connor let out a laugh, trying not to burst out laughing by the way Rydel was panicking and looking right now "Rydel, you're not in trouble by Mrs Brookes don't worry."

At that moment Rydel became relieved and stopped worrying.

"But, Ross, Ashton, Rocky and Brad are going to hang you from the ceiling and feed you to wild wolves."

Rydel's eyes widened, again becoming nervous "Why..?" She asked. Connor kept the grin on his face, motioning for Rydel to come forwards and have a look for herself.

She walked over to the laptop reluctantly and saw Connor had the video of their performance up, and she didn't get what she was supposed to be seeing. But then she looked lower than the video where she saw the likes and views, making her gasp and her hands fly to her mouth "Oh my god! No! No, no! Oh shit! Oh my god, they're going to kill me. Oh, no, no, no." She panicked, where Connor finally burst out laughing "Shut up, Connor! It's not funny!"

"Oh, but it is."

Rydel kept on chorusing "oh no, no, no" as she went up to the search bar on YouTube, typing in: "_OneRepublic Counting Stars Cover" _and she let out a small panicked scream when she saw it was one of the top results. She put her hands over her mouth, being convinced her eyes were about to pop out of her head. Meanwhile, Connor continued to laugh at Rydel's reaction before saying:

"Congratulations, Rydel, you've made them go viral!"

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**Thanks for reading!**

**& WHILST I'VE STILL HOPEFULLY GOT ALL OF YOUR ATTENTION: Can you guys go check out my story "Five Nights At Freddy's" bc not many people read it, and I really like writing that story, and it makes me feel a little bit shitty at how barely anybody reads it & it makes me feel like it's not a very good story. So... could you guys hopefully check it out for me after you've read this & tell me what you think? It'd mean a lot. (if it helps its a Brad/Ross/Rocky/Ashton/Luke only story bc I know how much everyone loves them four together after The Last Judgement)**

**Thanks for reading!**

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	13. Coming Together

**Hey. So, I think I'm gonna start with my process that I have for getting all my fanfiction's updated starting from today, so I decided to start with this story because it's close to the ones I actually have ideas for lol. Just kidding, I have ideas for all my stories it's just some I'm not as excited to write about as I am with others.**

**I'm glad you enjoyed the end of the last chapter with Rydel & Connor, I enjoyed writing it haha.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own R5, The Vamps or 5 Seconds Of Summer, all rights go to Hollywood, Mercury/Virgin EMI & Capitol Records!**

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**Chapter 13  
**_Coming Together_

Rocky sat at a dinner table in school the next day by himself, waiting for his friends to come meet him and damn they were taking a while. But right about now they were on the other side of the hall, taking their time coming over which Rocky found aggravating.

But that wasn't bothering.

Do you wanna know what was bothering him so much?

People. People and their staring.

Nearly everyone, since he had walked onto the school premises this morning, had been staring at him. And he couldn't tell if it was in a bad or good way. Now he was sat in the diner hall where people continued to stare at him, so he looked down and stared at his food on his tray. Deciding enough was enough, Rocky looked up and looked at the people who were staring at him and they quickly looked away as soon as Rocky made eye contact with them.

Rocky shook it off, deciding in his head that they were all probably staring at him now because he's sat by himself at an empty table because his friends still hadn't made it to the table. As he went to go continue eating, he stopped because he could see out of the corner of his eye, some people in the lowest grade in the school were looking over at him like the other people were. Instead of causing a scene and asking them why they were staring, he grabbed his tray and got up from where he sat to go find somewhere else to sit where he wouldn't be stared at.

As he walked through the dining hall, he ended up colliding into Ashton who looked about as uneasy and confused as Rocky did. "Oh, sorry, Ash. What's up?" Rocky asked.

Ashton moved uneasily, feeling awkward "N-nothing... I'm er... fine. Hey, er... Listen... um... don't make it obvious you're looking at them. But... are people staring at me like I'm from a foreign country?" Ashton asked, trying not to look at the people who were staring at him because now they were staring at both Ashton and Rocky.

Rocky subtly averted his eyes and saw a couple of people looking over at them, whispering stuff in each others ears "Yeah... they are..." Rocky said, looking back at him "they keep giving me the same look too..."

Ashton sighed heavily "Why? If it's because we're seniors and we're big, tall and scary then it would be the lowest grade looking at us that way, and be giving us subtly scared looks. But they're not. And even people in the senior year keep giving me funny looks. I walked into class this morning with Michael and Calum, they were laughing at me and laughed even more because I couldn't understand why they were. They wouldn't tell me either." Ashton explained.

Rocky thought about it for a moment. They know if it was anything to do with the concert something would have been said last Monday, or a few days after, because that's when everyone watched them, but all they got were _'hey I saw you in the concert, you did good' _and that was about it. As Rocky went to go say something, the speakers sounded in the dining hall and the headmaster started speaking through it.

"_Can Ashton Irwin, Rocky Jenkinson, Ross Lynch and Bradley Simpson please go see Miss Harding in music. NOW."_

Ashton glanced at Rocky nervously "He didn't sound happy... have we done something we shouldn't..?"

"Only one way to find out."

Brad walked quickly down the hallway where Rydel's classroom was, avoiding anyone and everyone who was staring at him. But luckily there were only about five people on this corridor, and he looked over to the outside of Rydel's classroom where he saw Ross, Rocky and Ashton all stood out there talking to each other nervously. "Why are you all stood out here for? How come you haven't gone in?" Brad asked, coming to a stop when he was in front of them all.

"Because," Ross said "I don't know what she wants us for. We could be in trouble. The principle sounded pretty pissed talking through that speaker."

They all glanced at each other before Rocky decided to go first and enter the classroom with the other three behind him, seeing Rydel sat at her desk looking nervous along with four chairs already set out in front of her. She turned her head and smiled at the boys, but not her normal sweet, kind, caring smile. This was more of a: _"I'm sorry, please don't kill me" _kind of smile.

Instantly, the boys knew they weren't in trouble and that it was something Rydel had done. At least they hoped. After having that reassurement by Rydel's face, the boys all sat down on the four chairs in front of the desk. Everyone sat in complete silence before Rydel decided to break it "So... h-how are you all today?" Rydel asked.

Ross shrugged "Apart from the funny looks people keep giving me... not bad." he said with a small nod.

Brad turned to Ross like he had seen the light "You're getting them too?! Oh my god, I'm glad I'm not the only one, I thought I'd done something wrong!"

Rydel let out a small laugh "Yeah, thought so. I can explain that." She said as the four boys started discussing the funny looks they were getting together. She was not looking forward to telling them they had gone from normal school boys at high school to freaking internet sensations within a week and a half.

Especially since the boys stopped talking and slowly turned their heads to Rydel, giving her small suspicious looks. Rydel played with her hands nervously "You remember how I recorded everyone's performance and sent them to Mrs Brookes?" Rydel asked, the boys nodded "and er... remember how I couldn't send your performance to her so I had to put it on YouTube."

Ashton's eyes widened "No."

"Yeah..."

Ashton immediately stood up from his seat "Are you kidding me?!"

"I wish I was." Rydel said, turning her laptop round where she had the Counting Stars video up and the number of views, likes and comments in plain sight.

The rest of the boys all stood up to have a look and they hovered over the laptop having a look, where Brad felt his legs start to become slightly like Jelly "Oh... wow... that's... that's a lot of... numbers."

Rydel continued to look nervous, scratching the back of her head nervously "Yeah, wait for it, it gets better. Type in OneRepublic Counting Stars Cover in the search bar."

Ashton looked up and gave Rydel a small glare whilst typing in at the top what she had told him too, waiting for the results to show up "Jesus fucking Christ all mighty! Rydel! You made us go viral!" Ashton shouted.

"No wonder people have been giving us funny looks!" Ross yelled too, then running a hand through his hair. He was not looking forward to seeing Ellington later on where he would get the sarcastic comments.

Rydel stood up "I know, I know! I'm sorry! I didn't mean too! I didn't think this would happen! Heck, does anybody when they post covers to YouTube?" She asked.

Ashton sighed heavily and sat back down in his chair, running his hands through his hair. He knows it's not necessarily a bad thing that this has happened, but how the hell is he supposed to have a normal school life when he's been posted all over the internet with three other guys? But he will make a mental note never to ask that question to anybody ever because that just sounds like some weird viral porno.

Ashton looked back up and at Rydel "Well, what are we gonna do?!" Ashton asked "We can't exactly wait till it goes away, that could take years! Especially with as many views as..." he got closer to the screen to have a look at the exact amount of views and his eyes widened "nearly fucking 3 million!" He shouted, he sighed and decided to get back onto the subject "people are gonna be watching that every day and every time they look for a cover version of it! We're not getting out of this easily and you know it."

Brad shrugged "Well, we could ignore it until it goes away. Sure, it'll take a long time. But so what?" He asked.

"Or, you could delete it off YouTube forever." Rocky said, turning to Rydel. Even though he knows people have probably already downloaded it to their computers and if it gets deleted they'll probably post it again.

"Or we could just leave it."

At that moment Ashton, Brad, Rocky and Rydel's heads all turned to Ross as he said that, giving him a funny look or a _'are you crazy'_ kind of look. Ross shrugged "Hey, if you think about it, it's not necessarily a bad thing that the videos gone viral and is popular. If anything... we're lucky. I mean, how many people and bands that post covers go viral every week? Not many."

"Yeah, but we're not a band Ross. That's the thing. We did it as a one off, but them 3 million people don't know that! They're expecting more from us if you read the comments!" Rocky said, pointing over to the laptop.

Rydel gave Ross a suspicious look after Ross and Rocky had said what they said, not being quite sure as to what Ross was trying to say when he made everyone fall silent. But an idea came to her mind and she smiled, which didn't go unnoticed. "Why are you smiling?" Rocky asked.

Rydel shrugged, having her hands in her back pockets now "I mean... Ross has got a point. It's not a bad thing. And we could just leave it as it is. But as Rocky said – and I have been reading the comments since yesterday – people are expecting more from you, hence why you have a lot of views and subscribers..." She said, trailing off.

The boys all looked at her suspiciously, waiting for her to explain what was going on in her blonde mind. She stood up straight, taking her hands out of her back pocket "People obviously love you guys by the comments they've put, the amount of subscribers that are on the YouTube channel now and along with the obvious views and likes. But of course, some people don't like the cover, but you know what they say, where there's lovers, there's haters. It's almost like... you've grown a fanbase of your own like any other celebrity out there," she paused "Or band." she finished off.

"Where the hell are you going with this?" Ashton asked.

Rydel shrugged "I don't know... all I'm saying is that... maybe you might want to reconsider the whole band thing again. I know it was only supposed to be a one-off performance that you guys did... but... this is like a once in a life time opportunity and it's not going to be there forever if you think about it. It's not something you can leave for a while and decide later on _'you know what, I wanna do that' _but realise your time to shine has passed. I know you guys probably weren't planning on being in a band, but... I think, if you all stay as a band, it could actually work out. In fact, I know it will. If you get me and what I'm trying to say... you could say... it's almost like it's meant to be."

The boys all shared a glance with each other, being a little bit unsure if they wanted to go along with what Rydel was saying and stay as a band. Would it really work out? Would they be a good band? They are an odd mix together when you think about it hard enough.

Rydel saw the uncertainty in the boys faces where she stomped her foot, becoming immediately pissed and angry "Oh, guys! Come _ON_! I hate it when I see musical talent go to waste and you all have a god damn lot of it! Ashton, you're the best freaking drummer I have seen in years! Rocky, you're like a god on the guitar, I've never seen anything like it. Ross, Jesus Christ, you have an amazing set of vocals on you and you can play the guitar – but you all can sing and play at the same time, and that is very fucking rare I'll tell you that now. And Brad, oh my god... my dear sweet Brad. I know you don't wanna hear it, but oh my gosh, you have musical talent too. The same musical talent that your Dad had which was amazing, but he let it go to waste and you know it. And I'm not saying you're going to turn out like him, and I don't know think – in fact I know – that your Mom never meant it in that way either! We just mean that he had musical talent that he wasted, and you have musical talent that me and especially your Mom don't want to see go to waste. Now for fuck sake, don't let this opportunity pass you by because I could see how much you all loved performing on that stage and let me tell you something, this opportunity will never come by for you again!" Rydel finished and took a deep breath after that explanation, not being quite sure where that sudden out burst had came from.

The four boys all leant back from Rydel's outburst, hoping to never see that side of her again. "R-Rydel... we—we never said no... we just looked at each other..." Rocky said.

Rydel nodded, now having her hands on her hips, looking at the four boys "Now, tell me. What are you guys going to do? Are you going to ignore it until your little five minutes of fame goes away, or are you going to make that five minutes of fame turn into five years of fame?" She asked.

Again, they all glanced at each other and faced Rydel again. Ashton shrugged "I don't suppose it could hurt to try..." Ashton said, making the other three boys stare at him like he was crazy "Hey! You never know unless you try! And Rydel could be right you know."

Ross sighed, looking up at the ceiling and groaning "I can't believe I'm doing this... but yeah. Sure, why not. It could be fun."

Rocky rolled his eyes "Well, I'm not doing anything better with my life right now but be in school. So I guess I'll do it."

Rydel smiled, becoming and looking hopeful with her hands clasped together. She turned to Brad who looked unsure. He moved about shiftily "I don't know guys... I'm a little unsure..." He said.

"Why should you be?" Rydel asked.

"Like, what if it does work out? What happens then? Everything could go... wrong if you get me. I mean, nobody's seen what happens to band members during their fame more than I have."

Rydel shrugged "Who said it was going to work out?" she asked, making Brad raise his eye brows at her. She sighed "Brad. C'mon, please... do it. You won't regret it. Do it for me? Please? Don't let me down."

Brad sighed, looking over to the other three boys and he gave in almost immediately "Alright, fine, I'll do it."

Rydel clapped her hands in excitement and jumped a little "YAY! Awe! This is perfect! This could totally work out!" Rydel said, beginning to fan girl. She walked back round behind her desk and pulled her laptop to face her again.

Ashton rose from his seat slowly "Rydel, I know you're getting excited about this... but... we might need a little bit of help."

Rydel became confused "What do you mean 'help'?" She asked, laughing a little "you're all music geniuses! You don't need my help at all."

"Well, one... we don't know anything about each other. Two, when you're in a band, you do tend to need a band name, and 3... when you're in a band you also need to know how to write songs and um... we don't exactly have the best imagination or writing skills ever." Ashton explained.

"You're telling me in those two weeks you had to practice for the school concert you never got to know each other at all?" Rydel asked, and they all shook their heads. She rolled her eyes and sighed. She got up from behind her desk again "Alright, I'll help out. But we're taking it one step at a time and I think the most important thing to do first is to get to know each other before you come up with a brand new original band name rather than making it something to do with what you saw on a bus stop yesterday. Come back after school and we'll start from there. Okay?" Rydel asked, and they all nodded.

She smiled, nodding towards the door "Now go on. Your fans await." she joked.

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**Okay, so I know this story is going along pretty slow because they're not famous yet, but... to be honest the story is mainly about how they got together as a band and how they get to where they are in the middle of the story. Don't worry, in a few chapters time they'll be all big and famous and all the drama will have kicked off with what was said in the first three chapters with Ross, Brad & Ashton. YAY Drama. Fun. **

_**4 REVIEWS OR MORE IF YOU WANT THE NEXT ONE.**_


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